{
  "id": "F-26",
  "url": "https://evy.so/facts/company-data-in-public-ai/",
  "chapter": "What Teams Trust",
  "question": "How often do employees put company data into public AI tools?",
  "answer": "A little under half of workers say they have put company information into public AI tools: 48 percent of AI-using employees, and 42 percent of privacy and security professionals themselves. Monitoring software confirms it happens routinely, and a third to a half of AI use at work runs through personal accounts.",
  "range": {
    "low": 42,
    "high": 48,
    "unit": "% of surveyed workers who have put non-public company information into public AI tools",
    "display": "42–48% of workers say they have put company information into public AI tools (2024 to 2025)"
  },
  "confidence": "medium",
  "confidence_reason": "Two independent self-report surveys with different populations agree closely. Monitoring data from four security vendors confirms the behavior, but each counts something different and draws on its own customers.",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-14",
  "how_to_read": "The two surveys ask people about their own behavior; one covers employees in all jobs, the other privacy and security professionals. Monitoring data from security vendors (below) counts events in their customers' systems and cannot be put on the same scale: one counts interactions, another prompts or files, another users. Every monitoring source sells the product that produced its data. Uploading is most common where AI is banned (67%), which suggests bans push use out of sight.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "creator": "University of Melbourne and KPMG International",
      "title": "Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence: A global study 2025",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "32,352 employed people in 47 countries, November 2024 to January 2025",
      "method": "Anonymous online survey of employees who use AI; self-reported",
      "figure": "48% have uploaded company information such as financial, sales or customer data into a public AI tool (34% sometimes or more often)",
      "url": "https://mbs.edu/-/media/PDF/Research/Trust_in_AI_Report.pdf",
      "quote": "report that they have uploaded company information, such as financial, sales, or customer information"
    },
    {
      "creator": "Cisco",
      "title": "Cisco 2025 Data Privacy Benchmark Study",
      "year": 2025,
      "sample": "More than 2,600 privacy and security professionals in 12 countries, fall 2024",
      "method": "Double-blind survey of what respondents themselves entered into generative AI apps. Cisco sells security products.",
      "figure": "42% entered non-public information about their company (48% in the 2024 edition); 46% employee information; 31% customer information",
      "url": "https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/doing_business/trust-center/docs/cisco-privacy-benchmark-study-2025.pdf",
      "archive_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/2025id_/https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/about/doing_business/trust-center/docs/cisco-privacy-benchmark-study-2025.pdf",
      "quote": "nearly half of respondents still reported inputting personal employee information or non-public"
    }
  ],
  "related_findings": [
    {
      "question": "What does monitoring software show about company data in AI tools?",
      "answer": "That sensitive data reaches AI tools routinely, at rates that depend on what is counted. 39.7% of employee interactions with AI tools involved data the customer labeled sensitive (Cyberhaven, 2025 data). About 2.6% of all prompts and uploads were sensitive, but 26% of uploaded files were (Harmonic Security, 2025). The average organization logged 223 attempts a month to send sensitive data to AI apps, made by about 3% of its AI users (Netskope). All three are vendor data from their own customers.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "creator": "Cyberhaven Labs",
          "title": "2026 AI Adoption & Risk Report",
          "year": 2026,
          "sample": "Hundreds of thousands of employees at 222 companies, AI usage during 2025",
          "method": "Vendor telemetry of data moving into AI tools. Cyberhaven sells data security software.",
          "figure": "39.7% of employee AI interactions involve sensitive data; personal-account share of use: ChatGPT 32.3%, Claude 58.2%, Perplexity 60.9%",
          "url": "https://info.cyberhaven.com/hubfs/Webflow_Resources/Cyberhaven-AI-Risk-Report-2026.pdf",
          "quote": "the average employee enters sensitive data into AI tools once every three days"
        },
        {
          "creator": "Harmonic Security",
          "title": "What 22 Million Enterprise AI Prompts Reveal About Shadow AI in 2025",
          "year": 2026,
          "sample": "22.5 million prompts and uploads across 665 AI tools, 2025, US and UK customers",
          "method": "Vendor telemetry from browser monitoring. Harmonic sells AI data protection software.",
          "figure": "579,113 sensitive exposures in 22.5 million prompts and uploads (about 2.6%); 26% of uploaded files in Q3 2025",
          "url": "https://www.harmonic.security/resources/what-22-million-enterprise-ai-prompts-reveal-about-shadow-ai-in-2025",
          "quote": "Sensitive Data Instances: 579,113 detected exposures"
        },
        {
          "creator": "Netskope Threat Labs",
          "title": "Cloud and Threat Report: 2026",
          "year": 2026,
          "sample": "Anonymized data from Netskope customers, October 2024 to October 2025",
          "method": "Vendor telemetry of data policy violations, only where customers have rules in place. Netskope sells security software.",
          "figure": "About 3% of AI users commit an average of 223 data policy violations a month per organization; 47% of AI users use personal AI apps",
          "url": "https://www.netskope.com/resources/cloud-and-threat-reports/cloud-and-threat-report-2026",
          "quote": "3% of genAI users committing an average of 223 genAI data policy violations"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "How much AI use at work runs through personal accounts?",
      "answer": "A third to a half, depending on the tool and the vendor. 47% of AI users used personal AI apps in 2025 and 44% in mid-2026 (Netskope). 32.3% of ChatGPT use and about 60% of Claude and Perplexity use at work ran through personal accounts (Cyberhaven). Data security leaders estimate that 58% of employees use personal credentials for work AI (Microsoft, 2026).",
      "sources": []
    }
  ],
  "numbers_you_may_have_seen": [
    {
      "claim": "48% of employees enter non-public company information into AI (Cisco).",
      "what_the_source_says": "Cisco's respondents were privacy and security professionals reporting their own behavior, in the 2024 edition. The 2025 figure is 42%."
    },
    {
      "claim": "77% of employees paste company data into ChatGPT (LayerX).",
      "what_the_source_says": "LayerX gives no denominator, so the figure can only describe AI users, and it counts any paste into any AI tool."
    },
    {
      "claim": "40% of employees leak sensitive data into AI (Cyberhaven).",
      "what_the_source_says": "39.7% is the share of AI interactions that involve data the customer labeled sensitive. It is not a share of employees."
    },
    {
      "claim": "Companies see 223 AI data leaks a month (Netskope).",
      "what_the_source_says": "223 is the average number of detected policy violations per organization, made by about 3% of AI users, and only where rules exist."
    }
  ],
  "citation": "EVY (2026). How often do employees put company data into public AI tools? The AI at Work Fact Book, F-26. https://evy.so/facts/company-data-in-public-ai/ (last checked October 14, 2026). CC BY 4.0.",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0"
}