Shadow AI at Work: Why You Need Visibility Into the AI Tools Your Team Is Already Using

Over the past year, AI tools have quietly become part of everyday work. Staff are using chatbots, AI coding assistants, and browser AI extensions, often without IT ever approving or even knowing about them. This is sometimes called “shadow AI,” and it creates a security blind spot that traditional antivirus and endpoint tools were never built to see.

To close that gap, Bitdefender has released a new add-on called AI Visibility and Control (AIVC). We think it is worth knowing about, whether or not you take it up, because it highlights a risk that is easy to overlook.

What the Risk Actually Looks Like

AIVC scans supported Windows endpoints and builds a picture of AI activity across your business, covering things like:

  • Web based AI applications and services staff are logging into
  • AI coding assistants and developer tools
  • AI models or engines running locally on a machine
  • AI agents and connected AI components

It then flags specific findings, such as an AI tool with excessive access to company data, one installed from an untrusted source, or one that is exposed to the internet in a way that was never intended. Each finding gets a risk score, so the more serious issues surface first instead of getting lost in a long list.

What We Would Suggest

  • If you are already on a Bitdefender GravityZone plan with EDR or PHASR, AIVC can usually be added as a licensed extra. We can confirm eligibility for your setup.
  • Turning it on does not block or change anything automatically. It is a visibility and reporting layer first, so there is no disruption to staff while it is running.
  • Once it has run for a week or two, we would go through the findings with you and agree on any follow up actions together, rather than acting on alerts in isolation.

If you would like to know whether this applies to your current setup, or just want a plain English rundown of what it would show you, get in touch with Anvil support and we will talk it through.

More technical detail is available from Bitdefender directly: AI Visibility and Control overview (Bitdefender)

The Anvil Team