AI programs are now widespread and utilized by most people in your company. For IT and security teams, the focus has shifted from “should we permit AI?” to “how can we make it secure and controlled?” This is a significant undertaking.

New AI software and connections are constantly being implemented, often without the knowledge or supervision of IT.

To handle this new hidden threat, you require a system that offers ongoing discovery, immediate monitoring, and forward-thinking management without needing a dedicated team constantly tracking every new AI program. Nudge Security provides exactly this.

Here’s how it functions:

Firstly, you cannot secure what you do not know exists. Nudge Security immediately identifies every AI app and account ever introduced to your organization, even those added before you started using Nudge. No surveys, no assumptions, and no relying on users to report them (because that rarely works).

You’ll gain a full view of your AI environment from the start.

Nudge Security’s shadow AI discovery operates through a simple connection to your IdP (Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace). Setting up this connection takes under 5 minutes, and once active,

Nudge Security examines the automated emails sent by SaaS and AI app vendors (like [email protected]) to record activities such as new account creation, password resets, and changes to security settings.

Nudge uses this data (without saving email content) to automatically find new accounts and tool adoption across your workforce. This gives you complete insight into the spread of AI tools as it happens, and an instant inventory of everything introduced up to that point.

You can improve visibility by installing the browser extension, which provides real-time information and alerts when risky behavior is detected.

Additionally, you can “nudge” users via the browser extension (and via Slack, Teams, and email) to warn them about risky actions, remind them of secure methods, direct them to approved tools, request more information on new or unfamiliar tools, and more.

Let’s examine how this works in action.

AI tools are highly useful but also very communicative. Employees copy and paste various items into ChatGPT, Gemini, and many other AI assistants.

The Nudge Security browser extension monitors AI conversations and identifies the sharing of sensitive data such as PII, secrets, or financial information.

It’s not limited to text; Nudge also detects file uploads to AI tools, including details on who, what, when, and how. You’ll also see a visual overview of data flows between your systems and AI tools to quickly find the major data risks.

Want to know which departments use AI the most? Wondering if that unauthorized tool is reappearing? Nudge tracks AI use based on the status of approved/unapproved apps, specific apps, and department.

You’ll ultimately have data displaying actual AI usage, allowing you to focus your security efforts on the most frequently used tools and guide users to the approved toolkit.

AI tools often connect with your SaaS apps. MCP server connections, AI agents, Google Workspace add-ons, Microsoft Copilot plugins—they’re all requiring data access.

Nudge maintains an inventory of SaaS-to-AI integrations and permissions, including MCP server connections, so you can clearly observe where AI tools have been granted data access and assess the risk.

You cannot observe everything continuously. That is why Nudge offers configurable alerts, which notify you when new AI tools appear or when there are policy violations—such as sensitive data sharing or using unapproved tools. Think of it as an early warning system.

You have an AI acceptable use policy, right? (If not, let’s discuss it.) Nudge automates sharing your policy with staff and gathering and following up on acknowledgements.

But acknowledgement is just the starting point. Nudge delivers safeguards when and wherever staff are operating in the form of helpful nudges (hence the name) that strengthen your policy and steer them toward safer AI usage in real time.

It’s proactive governance that doesn’t require you to be the bearer of bad news.

Your job is not to halt progress but to ensure that advancement doesn’t lead to a data breach. Nudge Security gives you the visibility, control, and automation required to govern AI use efficiently, so you can rest easier.

Interested in witnessing it firsthand? Begin a free 14-day trial of Nudge Security today.

Sponsored and written by Nudge Security.