Your AI deployment might be out of policy

Why your AI deployment might be out of policy

Security approves a company AI assistant. IT builds the SSO integration, writes the acceptable use policy, sends the announcement email. Everyone gets access. On paper, it's done.

But did marketing install a browser extension that summarizes competitor sites and sends that content to a third-party model? Is someone on the sales team running a Chrome copilot that autofills CRM fields with data pulled from an open tab? Did an engineer add a coding assistant plugin to their IDE that talks to a server nobody vetted?

If you can't say whether every AI tool in your company runs the same way on every device, you're not alone. Most IT teams can't either. Netwrix's 2026 Data and Identity Security Report found that only 20% of organizations fully monitor or govern employee use of shadow AI, meaning for the other 80%, tools like this are already running unchecked.

Average policy doesn't cover this

AI tools, browser copilots, and third-party plugins are mostly non-Microsoft software. Group Policy governs Windows settings. Intune governs managed apps. Neither one reaches into a Chrome extension or configures the settings inside a third-party AI plugin. The tools carrying the most new risk are the ones your existing controls were never built to touch.

That gap shows up in the numbers, too. The same report found 76% of organizations don't fully govern or monitor non-human identities in their environments, a category that increasingly includes the AI agents and browser extensions employees add on their own.

That's not a people problem. It's a coverage problem, and it's worth fixing before the next AI rollout, not after.

5 things teams miss when deploying AI tools

1. Extensions install without anyone reviewing them. Anyone with local admin rights, or sometimes just browser access, can add an AI extension in seconds.

2. Approving one tool doesn't stop ten others. Rolling out a sanctioned AI assistant doesn't keep people from adding their own. Shadow AI spreads the same way shadow IT always has, through convenience.

3. The same tool ends up configured differently everywhere. Without central enforcement, settings drift from machine to machine.

4. Remote and non-domain devices don't get the policy at all. Contractors, remote hires, and BYOD devices often sit outside the Group Policy boundary. Whatever AI policy exists at headquarters may not exist for them.

5. Nobody knows when a setting changed. If an AI extension's configuration shifts, most teams find out from a support ticket. Centralized policy management gives IT one place to see and control configuration instead of troubleshooting blind.

Meet PolicyPak

PolicyPak's Application Settings Manager and Browser Router extend configuration and access control to non-Microsoft apps and browser extensions, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. That's the software category standard management tools don't reach.

Both are core components of PolicyPak's modular framework, enforced through a Client-Side Extension installed on managed endpoints. Delivery isn't limited to on-domain machines: it works through Group Policy (GPMC) for AD environments, MDM/UEM export for modern management, and PolicyPak Cloud for non-domain and remote devices. The same policy reaches a headquarters desktop and a remote contractor's laptop.

AI tooling and browser extensions get governed under the same policy umbrella as everything else, regardless of whether the vendor supports traditional management frameworks.

See where your AI policy actually stands

Before your next AI rollout, check who has access, whether it's consistent, and which browser extensions are already on the fleet. If you can't answer that with confidence, download a PolicyPak free trial and find out.