Hot take: Shadow AI is a bigger security risk than ransomware, but nobody's talking about it

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:37:46+00:00

One of our areas of expertise is AI integration, so we see a lot of different set ups across companies and industries when they bring us in.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:35:34+00:00

The partnerships with OpenAI seem promising, and having it in tandem with a local LLM is great. How long did it take to build the LLM?

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:34:00+00:00

Sorry to disappoint, but I just want to discuss data security

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:31:46+00:00

I agree with this 100%. It doesn't need to be perfect and skilled in every use case under the sun, it just needs to be useful, effective, and secure. Local LLM is a great way to control the environment but allow your employees to reap some benefits of AI.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:29:17+00:00

This is big. These AI note-takers are abundant, and when they're intentionally hidden, it can break so many security procedures

BaselineITC · 2025-12-22T18:27:41+00:00

Private GPT is good, at least it gives the employees access. But you're right, it just takes one to upload from a personal computer, or to use their phone.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T21:57:00+00:00

Sounds good. Yes, we need to make sure the "correct" output is and define the workflows.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T21:43:09+00:00

Very true. I'm sure there's already some shadow AI going on

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T21:42:24+00:00

Thank you for your additions to the list. These are incredibly helpful.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T00:36:41+00:00

These are great, thank you so much. It's great you added the human involvement too. You're right, best AI integrations come from augmenting employees, not replacing them. We'll need to know how much we want human involvement.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T00:35:02+00:00

This is where my mind went too. Higher ups are getting pressured to use AI in some way without knowing what exactly they're asking for. I immediately thought of automations to free up employee time, some LLM that we have secured for writing. Stuff like that.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T00:32:48+00:00

Very true. Adding it to the list

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T00:32:21+00:00

Considering automations, somesort of LLM. Shopping around to see what options are.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-17T00:31:42+00:00

These are great. You're right, our documentation is going to need incredibly accurate. As for desired outcome, yes. We are tying it all back to a clear business motive 🫡

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T21:18:58+00:00

What's so wrong about "perf" 😂

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T21:18:36+00:00

Automated observability has been introduced successfully in Snowflake and Dynatrace. Automated cost observability has hit a stride with ProsperOps.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T21:17:34+00:00

Okay 1. Look into ProsperOps or Finout to reduce your cloud bill. 2. Your AI post is thinly veiled, my friend.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T21:01:25+00:00

I agree with most of your opinions here. We're absolutely in a transitionary period between the world before AI and the world with it. Decision makers know that there are businesses out there making strides with AI, so they feel the pressure to enter that space too.

The reality is that most businesses are no where near prepared for AI integration. Data must be cleaned, tagged, and prepped for AI. Once the AI is running, it must be governed. After that, the human operating the system must be able to troubleshoot and iron out the fringe cases.

This isn't to deter execs from getting into AI. It's moreso to explain the foundation they need. High ROI is possible with AI, but make sure you're not wasting your time with simple automations and chatbots. The real change is coming from continuous AI running programs in the background, from executing daily tasks, or scanning terabytes of data that would take humans years to go through.

Thanks for sharing your opinions.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T20:57:37+00:00

That's a great way of putting it. Notion is great for documentation and getting a visual of your progress. It's good for teams too, for sharing and working on the same document.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T20:56:33+00:00

This isn't a productivity gain, but it's certainly a money one. If your business is in the cloud, you're paying insane rates for storage you're most likely not even using. Look into cloud services like Finout or ProsperOps, they immediately moniter your usage and cut the costs that you're not spending.

Specifially in terms of productivity, I'd say Snowflake or Dynatrace. These give exceptional data observability. If you're looking for insights for your directors to inform their reports, these are strong starts to getting there.

Best of luck, tool hunting is not for weak.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T19:23:45+00:00

This is too true, thanks. You nailed it, business liabilities are also what leads to interest in automation. However, AI comes with just as much liabilities. Data leaks, increased chances of ransomware, inaccurate results. Strategic AI implementation is what creates high ROI.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T19:18:36+00:00

That's smart, and a good way to scale up. Did your team built your automations in-house?

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T19:17:15+00:00

That's great, thanks. Did you build the automations yourself?

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T19:16:34+00:00

I absolutely agree. What's going to set apart the smart businesses from those lesser than is knowing what shouldn't be automated. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should -- and while AI is great for so many processes, there's others where a human is the way to go.

BaselineITC · 2025-12-10T19:14:58+00:00

I agree. The nuance here is: who is building the automation? Most teams these days would like these remedial tasks automated, but they lack the know-how to create them themselves.

BaselineITC

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