The 'shadow AI economy' is booming: Workers at 90% of companies say they use chatbots, but most of them are hiding it from IT

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• The mainstream AI economy is struggling, but the “shadow AI economy” is booming. That’s one of the key takeaways from a sweeping new MIT study on generative AI in the workplace. The study finds that workers at more than 90% of companies are using personal chatbot accounts for daily tasks, often without approval from IT, while only 40% of companies actually have official LLM subscriptions.

A sweeping new report from MIT’s Project NANDA, State of AI in Business 2025, has uncovered a dramatic split in the landscape of enterprise artificial intelligence: While official AI adoption in companies stalls, a robust “shadow AI economy” is flourishing under the radar, powered by employees using personal AI tools for day-to-day work.