Every profession has an AI tool that helps lighten the workload. Employees now use apps like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, Google Geini, and Midjourney to write, code, design, and brainstorm. There is no denying that AI brings tremendous opportunities.
But it also introduces new challenges. Almost 99% of organizations have sensitive data vulnerable to AI tools. As a result, companies from Wall Street banks to tech firms are scrambling to set rules or even block AI tools over security fears
The growing importance of AI in the workplace
AI is already a part of our workforce. In 2025, 77% of businesses are either using AI or actively exploring it. On top of that, 75 percent of workers say they’ve used AI at work, and nearly half of them adopted it in just the past six months.
The shift is huge. Leaders report big results too. About 72% of business leaders say they’ve seen strong productivity gains with extensive AI use. And 64 percent believe AI will boost workforce productivity even more in the future.
Experts predict that 70% of job skills will shift by 2030. That means upskilling and reskilling in AI are essential if you want to stay ahead.
While AI is everywhere, only 1% of organizations have actually reached maturity in how they use it. The rest are still figuring things out. That’s why you and I are living through one of the biggest workplace transformations in history.
So, Why Should Businesses Track Employee AI Usage?
With AI spreading so quickly at work, the question isn’t if your employees are using it. They already are. The real question is how you make sure it’s being used in the right way.
When workers rely on tools like ChatGPT or GitHub Copilot, they can speed up projects and boost creativity. But without oversight, there’s a risk.
- In March 2023, a Redis bug exposed sensitive billing details and even chat titles from other ChatGPT users because of flawed session isolation.
- Gemini stores chat data for up to three years, even after users request deletion, creating serious privacy and compliance risks.
- Copilot faces prompt-injection vulnerabilities, largely due to its deep integration with popular productivity apps.
On top of that, AI-generated content may look polished but can still contain errors or bias. And without clear guidelines, your team might not be using AI to its full potential.
What are the Risks of Using AI Tools Unmonitored?
Failing to monitor AI tool usage in the workplace can expose a business to several significant risks:
Data Leaks and Privacy Breaches
As discussed, unmonitored AI use can lead to sensitive data leaking outside the company. Samsung had to reprimand staff after employees fed confidential source code and meeting notes into ChatGPT, resulting in at least three data leak incidents in 20 days.
Without oversight, an employee could unintentionally paste customer data, financial results, or personal identifiers into an AI prompt. That information is then stored on external servers outside your control.
Intellectual Property (IP) and Confidentiality Risks
Data leaks aren’t the only risk. When employees paste proprietary code or designs into an AI tool, you lose exclusive control of that intellectual property. The content could become part of the AI’s training data.
Using AI-generated output can also raise copyright questions. If an employee uses an AI to generate text or images used in your business, who owns the rights? The legal landscape here is gray.
What’s clear is that companies need to monitor and set rules for AI use to protect their IP and contractual obligations.
“Shadow AI” and Unapproved Tools
Another risk is shadow AI, where employees use tools without the knowledge of IT or security teams. This parallels the classic “shadow IT” problem. Unvetted AI tools might be insecure or violate compliance.
If you don’t monitor your employees, you might only discover a breach when it’s too late. Monitoring network traffic and app usage can reveal unexpected AI tools being accessed by your employees.
Reduced Accountability and Audit Trail
When you bring AI into your decision-making or content creation process, it blurs visibility. Some industries require detailed audit trails of how a decision was reached or how time was spent on a task. If employees are quietly using AI with no record, you lose a chunk of that audit trail.
For example, if a financial analyst used an AI tool to generate part of an investment recommendation that turned out faulty, an auditor might have no trace of that step if it wasn’t monitored.
This is why tracking AI usage is often part of a robust governance and compliance framework.
How Can Companies Monitor AI Tool Usage at Work?
You can monitor AI usage at work by adapting the monitoring tools and IT processes already in place:
1. Establish Clear AI Usage Policies and Guidelines
A written AI usage policy is the first step in monitoring AI usage at work. his policy should list which AI tools are approved and what data must never be shared, like customer details or source code. It can also outline when a human review is required before using AI-generated work.
When your team knows that AI use is monitored under this policy, it sets clear expectations. It also discourages risky behavior.
2. Leverage Employee Monitoring Software with AI Tracking
Modern employee productivity tools let you track app and website activity. If you already use one, set it up to detect AI tools and sites.
Take Flowace as an example. It shows you exactly which apps and websites your team uses and how much time they spend on each. You get a complete timeline of their activity from login to logout, without disrupting their work.
By checking these logs, you can easily see who used AI tools, when they used them, and for how long.
3. Implement Network-Level Monitoring and Filters
You can also monitor AI usage through your network, not just on employee devices. Company networks or VPNs can log DNS queries and URL requests. By filtering for known AI services, you can see who is visiting them.
Tools like cloud access security brokers or secure web gateways make this easier. You can configure these tools to track or block specific AI apps.
One cybersecurity expert explained that platforms like Cloudflare Access can uncover “shadow IT.” They show which users are reaching sites like ChatGPT, even if they don’t reveal exactly what happens there.
4. Use AI Management or Analytics Platforms
If you work in a compliance-heavy industry, AI security platforms may be a better fit. They log prompts, responses, and even sanitize data through browser extensions or API hooks. Some go further by intercepting AI API calls and keeping a full audit trail.
You also have options like ChatGPT Enterprise. It gives you an admin dashboard with analytics, so you can track usage across your team. Companies like Business Insider already use it to see how many employees are active and how often.
5. Integrate Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Alerts
As part of monitoring AI, consider extending your DLP policies to cover AI usage. Traditional DLP systems monitor for sensitive data leaving the company (via email, USB, uploads, etc.). You can tweak these systems to also watch for patterns of data being sent to AI-related URLs or applications.
6. Encourage Self-Reporting and Feedback Loops
Sometimes the easiest way to track AI use is to just ask your team. Create channels where employees can share how they use AI, the challenges and concerns they might have.
Some companies hold “demo days” to lets management see which tools are in use. You can also require employees to register new AI tools before trying them at work, as part of your AI usage policy and review them.
How to Balance AI Monitoring with Employee Trust and Privacy?
Implementing AI usage monitoring is a delicate dance. If you want to strike the right balance between keeping tabs on AI and respecting employees:
- Be transparent from day one: Tell people what you will monitor and why. Put it in your handbook and IT policy. A Business Insider case showed that tracking AI use without notice led to complaints and distrust. So be transparent with your employee monitoring policy.
- Emphasize the positive purpose: . Frame monitoring as a tool to help the team, not to punish them. For instance, highlight that by seeing how AI is used, the company can invest in better tools, provide targeted training, or identify workload imbalances.
- Focus on work activity only: You need to limit your monitoring to what’s relevant for work. Flowace implements a “privacy mode” that allows employees to pause monitoring when taking personal time. This shows respect for employee privacy.
- Involve employees in shaping policy: Involve some of your staff in the creation and refinement of your AI usage policy and monitoring approach. This inclusion can extend to reviewing the monitoring data itself: consider sharing metrics with the team and asking for their interpretation or feedback.
- Provide training on responsible AI use: Teach safe prompts, data handling, limitations, and ethics. When employees are well-informed, they’re less likely to misuse AI out of ignorance.
How Flowace Helps Track and Optimize AI Usage at Work?
Now that we’ve covered the why, the risks, the how, and the human element of tracking AI usage, let’s look at a real solution in action.
Flowace is an automated time tracking and employee monitoring software built to boost productivity. It helps you keep an eye on AI usage while also improving overall team performance.
Here’s how Flowace can specifically help with AI usage tracking for employees:
Automatic AI Usage Detection
Flowace shows what apps and websites people use in real time. If someone opens ChatGPT or uses GitHub Copilot in VS Code, Flowace logs it under that tool. This automated tracking is hands-free without employees needing to manually start or stop timers. By monitoring AI tool usage at work in this way, Flowace provides reliable visibility without extra work from IT.
Contextual Productivity Reporting
Flowace marks apps and websites as Productive, Neutral, or Unproductive for each role or team. Maybe ChatGPT is productive for developers but neutral for other teams. Flowace lets you configure that in its dashboard. That way, you can see how AI usage correlates with employee productivity.
For instance, you might discover that the sales team spent 5% of their time in September on AI and their overall task completion went up. Such insight is good for measuring the AI’s ROI. On the other hand, if someone is spending hours on an AI art generator unrelated to their job, Flowace would flag that as unproductive time.
Data Security and Policy Enforcement Features
Flowace keeps detailed activity logs and (if enabled) screenshots at intervals, which can help identify risky behavior. For example, Flowace’s monitoring can track document titles in use. If an employee copies text from a file named “Client_Passwords.xlsx” and shortly after Flowace logs them active on ChatGPT’s site, a manager could spot this from the logs or screenshots. In this way, Flowace can indirectly flag potential data leaks.
Also, Flowace maintains an audit trail of app usage. You can produce a report from Flowace showing, for instance, all instances of ChatGPT usage in the last quarter, supporting your GDPR Article 30 record-keeping.
Time Tracking Integrated with AI Insights
Flowace can also map your AI usage to specific projects or tasks. For example,If a social media specialist logs time under “Q4 Campaign Content,” Flowace can show 25 minutes in ChatGPT, 30 minutes in Canva, and 15 minutes in Hootsuite. Managers see not just that AI was used, but that it supported ideation for a specific campaign.
Flowace also tracks productivity metrics like active vs. idle time, keystrokes and clicks (in Premium plan), etc. When you see an employee spent an hour “active” in an AI tool, you can have some confidence they were actively engaged.
And if needed, Flowace’s Privacy Mode can be toggled by employees when they’re on a break or doing personal tasks, ensuring employee privacy is respected. All these nuanced features allow a company to enforce AI usage policies with precision.
Ease of Use and Integration
It’s worth noting that Flowace is designed to be team-friendly and easy to deploy. It supports all types of work setups – office, remote, hybrid and works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile. So no matter where or how your employees work, Flowace can track their work apps. And Flowace’s cloud dashboard lets managers view reports from anywhere.
All this paints a fuller picture of how AI fits into your workflows. And with pricing plans starting at just a few dollars per user, Flowace offers an affordable entry into sophisticated monitoring that even small teams can use.
Final Thoughts
AI can be a big boost at work, but without caution, it brings real risks. That’s why tracking AI use is becoming a must. With proper monitoring, you can use AI responsibly and stay compliant. The key is balance. Be open with your team, set clear policies, and use tools like Flowace to keep things on track.
Want to try it yourself? Flowace offers a free trial so you can explore these AI tracking and productivity features with your own team’s workflow.
