Shadow AI is siphoning corporate data without IT knowing it — BYOAI has become the number one data exfiltration vector in 2026

By August 2026, Shadow AI — employees using unauthorized artificial intelligence tools — has become the top data exfiltration vector in the enterprise, ahead of phishing and unsecured APIs. Pasting a client contract into ChatGPT or uploading an architecture diagram to Claude bypasses every traditional DLP control.