Korean Security Firm PaaSoo AI Report: 77.3% of Respondents in Companies Banning Generative AI Still Use Personal Accounts for Work
Despite corporate bans on generative AI, over 70% of employees in surveyed Korean firms use personal accounts for business tasks, citing lack of clear policies and desire to avoid audit trails.
South Korean data security software company PaaSoo AI (파수 AI) released a report titled 'Intelligence Outside Control – Status of Shadow AI Usage and Response in Domestic Organizations' on October 28, 2026. The survey revealed that 77.3% of respondents in organizations that strictly prohibit the use of generative artificial intelligence still access AI services via personal accounts during work hours. This unauthorized 'Shadow AI' usage poses significant security risks.
The survey targeted 151 AI, IT, and security officials from major South Korean companies and institutions. Data showed that 29.1% of organizations allow autonomous use, 22.5% permit only designated services, and 14.6% enforce a principle-based block. Among those enforcing blocks, the vast majority of employees bypass restrictions. Key drivers for Shadow AI prevalence include 'lack of clear policies and guidelines' (28.5%) and 'intent to avoid leaving usage records in company systems' (25.3%).
Currently, only 19.2% of organizations can monitor and control employee usage of personal account AI services. Respondents cited 'internal core data being used for training third-party models' (28.3%) as their top concern, followed by violations of regulations like the Personal Information Protection Act and GDPR (24.0%), and difficulty in incident response due to untraceable usage history (23.7%). PaaSoo AI recommends addressing this challenge by providing secure internal AI tools, ensuring usage visibility, and establishing clear policies.