How often do employees put company data into public AI tools?
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.
- Medium confidence
- 2 primary sources
- 2025
- Last checked
Every study on one scale
Chart values as text
- Scale: % who have put company data into AI tools. Shaded range: 42–48%.
- KPMG and Melbourne (employees) (2025): 48% ever, 34% regularly
- Cisco (privacy professionals) (2025): 42% (48% in 2024)
Why medium confidence: 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.
Sources
| Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trust, attitudes and use of artificial intelligence: A global study 2025 | University of Melbourne and KPMG International | 2025 | 32,352 employed people in 47 countries, November 2024 to January 2025 | Anonymous online survey of employees who use AI; self-reported | 48% have uploaded company information such as financial, sales or customer data into a public AI tool (34% sometimes or more often) “report that they have uploaded company information, such as financial, sales, or customer information” | mbs.edu ↗ |
| Cisco 2025 Data Privacy Benchmark Study | Cisco | 2025 | More than 2,600 privacy and security professionals in 12 countries, fall 2024 | Double-blind survey of what respondents themselves entered into generative AI apps. Cisco sells security products. | 42% entered non-public information about their company (48% in the 2024 edition); 46% employee information; 31% customer information “nearly half of respondents still reported inputting personal employee information or non-public” | cisco.com ↗ Archived copy ↗ Cisco blocks automated downloads; the archived copy is the same report. |
What does monitoring software show about company data in AI tools?
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.
| Study | Creator | Year | Sample | Method | Figure | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 AI Adoption & Risk Report | Cyberhaven Labs | 2026 | Hundreds of thousands of employees at 222 companies, AI usage during 2025 | Vendor telemetry of data moving into AI tools. Cyberhaven sells data security software. | 39.7% of employee AI interactions involve sensitive data; personal-account share of use: ChatGPT 32.3%, Claude 58.2%, Perplexity 60.9% “the average employee enters sensitive data into AI tools once every three days” | info.cyberhaven.com ↗ |
| What 22 Million Enterprise AI Prompts Reveal About Shadow AI in 2025 | Harmonic Security | 2026 | 22.5 million prompts and uploads across 665 AI tools, 2025, US and UK customers | Vendor telemetry from browser monitoring. Harmonic sells AI data protection software. | 579,113 sensitive exposures in 22.5 million prompts and uploads (about 2.6%); 26% of uploaded files in Q3 2025 “Sensitive Data Instances: 579,113 detected exposures” | harmonic.security ↗ |
| Cloud and Threat Report: 2026 | Netskope Threat Labs | 2026 | Anonymized data from Netskope customers, October 2024 to October 2025 | Vendor telemetry of data policy violations, only where customers have rules in place. Netskope sells security software. | 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 “3% of genAI users committing an average of 223 genAI data policy violations” | netskope.com ↗ |
How much AI use at work runs through personal accounts?
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).
Numbers you may have seen
These figures circulate widely. Here is what the original source says.
- 48% of employees enter non-public company information into AI (Cisco). Cisco's respondents were privacy and security professionals reporting their own behavior, in the 2024 edition. The 2025 figure is 42%.
- 77% of employees paste company data into ChatGPT (LayerX). LayerX gives no denominator, so the figure can only describe AI users, and it counts any paste into any AI tool.
- 40% of employees leak sensitive data into AI (Cyberhaven). 39.7% is the share of AI interactions that involve data the customer labeled sensitive. It is not a share of employees.
- Companies see 223 AI data leaks a month (Netskope). 223 is the average number of detected policy violations per organization, made by about 3% of AI users, and only where rules exist.
More from What Teams Trust
- F-2124–53%How much do workers trust the output of AI tools at work?
- F-2241–44%How often do people check AI output before using it?
- F-2317–45%How often is AI output wrong on real work tasks?
- F-242–12%Which work tasks do people want AI to do on its own, and which do they want to keep?
- F-2530–44%How many workers use AI in ways that break company policy?
- F-2721–29%How many organizations have had a security incident or data breach involving AI?
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