What is Shadow AI?
Staff using AI tools their organization hasn't approved, often with work data. It can put sensitive data at risk, so ask which tools are allowed or help get a good one approved.
unapproved tool · donor data leaves our control
Shadow AI means…
Write it in your own words in the app.
In real work
To end the shadow AI at her nonprofit, where volunteers used any free app they liked, the director approved one tool and wrote a one-page guide.
In the illustration
Files go to the approved machine under the lamp. A hand slips a donor list into the unmarked machine in the shadow, and its output feeds out through a slot in the wall.
Draft a friendly note to my manager asking which AI tools our office has approved, so we avoid Shadow AI, and whether your AI assistant could be approved for public tasks like flyers.
Try it now
The fastest way to learn a word is to use it. Open this line in the agent you already work in and watch what it does. Change the tool to the one you use.
Go further
01Practice
Make it stick
One term a day, a short quiz, and sentence practice that checks your own words.
02Verify
Prove you know it
Pass the quiz and keep it in a Skills Wallet you can share with anyone who needs proof.
03Career
Find the work that uses it
See which roles lean on this vocabulary, and what they pay in year one.
Learn the next term tomorrow.
Google gives a definition. Prompthaus pairs each term with how it shows up in standups, PRs, prompts, and design reviews. Then it quizzes you until the word sticks. One term a day on iPhone.
