The use of "shadow AI" among UK employees has saved the economy billions of pounds, but also poses urgent security risks, according to a new report from Censuswide commissioned by Microsoft. "Shadow AI" refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools by employees, which poses a threat to the company's information security and privacy. The report was carried out in October 2025 and covered 2,003 UK employees.
The results show that 71% of respondents have used consumer-grade AI tools that have not been approved by the company, and 51% of employees use these tools every week. The main uses for using AI tools include communication (49%), drafting materials (40%), and finance-related tasks (22%).
The report points out that AI is significantly speeding up employees’ work on administrative matters. Data shows that British employees can save an average of 7.75 hours of clerical work every week, which is equivalent to a cumulative saving of 12.1 billion hours for the national economy throughout the year, worth approximately 208 billion pounds.
The use of AI is most common in fields such as IT and telecommunications, sales, media and marketing, construction and engineering, finance and insurance. Although AI tools have brought significant efficiency improvements, only 32% of employees are concerned about the privacy of input company or customer data, and 29% are concerned about the security risks that AI applications bring to corporate IT systems.
The report also shows that the biggest motivation for employees to choose these tools is "familiarity and convenience" (41%), with the second biggest reason (28%) for their company not providing an official AI option. Employees expect AI to save time to improve work-life balance (37%), learn new skills (31%), and focus on more meaningful work (28%).
In terms of cognitive attitudes towards AI, positive views are on the rise: 57% of employees now express optimism, excitement or confidence (compared to just 34% in January). There is also a clearer understanding of why the company uses AI (43%, a significant increase from 24% at the beginning of the year), and 39% of employees believe that AI is crucial to the company’s success (only 18% at the beginning of the year).
Darren Hardman, CEO of Microsoft UK and Ireland, said: "British employees are embracing AI with unprecedented enthusiasm to unleash productivity and creativity. But enthusiasm is not enough. Companies must ensure that the AI tools they use are designed for the workplace, not just for home entertainment. The message is clear: only enterprise-grade AI can deliver both the features employees need and the privacy and security protections organizations must have."
The report finally reminds that although employees have increasingly positive attitudes towards AI, they should still be alert to the risk of replacing their own positions - AI may allow one person to take on work that originally required multiple employees, resulting in a reduction in positions. Although the current view is that AI will cause certain job losses, it will also create new jobs, and employees in original positions can be transferred to new fields.