Netwrix Innovation Week: Enabling AI innovation securely

Employees are already using AI at work, with or without an approved program. So the question for IT has moved from "should we allow it" to "how do we enable it safely," and that one's a lot harder to answer. IT is expected to get people working with AI quickly, while also being responsible for the customer data, company IP, and identities those tools can reach. Our 2026 Data and Identity Security Report found that just 11% of organizations report full AI security readiness. Buying the licenses is easy, but getting an entire company to use AI well, and safely, takes a lot more.

I recently interviewed Mike Wetzel, our chief information officer, about how his team has been bringing AI to employees across Netwrix, from deciding which tools get approved and what guardrails go around them to training people and measuring whether any of it works. Much of it applies to sysadmins and IT leaders as AI starts showing up in their own environments.

Explore every Innovation Week conversation to hear Netwrix and industry experts discuss data and identity security.

Start with yes

Anyone with a browser and a credit card can sign up for an AI tool, so a blanket "no" from leadership doesn't really work. That's why Mike's starting point is always "yes," and the work is figuring out how to secure the request quickly.

Eliminating shadow AI entirely isn't the goal either, because he says it can also be a source of innovation for the business, and finding it is only half the job.

Security shouldn't slow adoption

Netwrix is a cybersecurity company. We keep security at the forefront of everything we do, so it would be reasonable to expect that to bog down our AI efforts. But Mike doesn't see why a security mindset should slow organizations down in the AI adoption curve. Instead, he considers it an advantage:

Netwrix was its own test case

Getting ready for AI meant taking a hard look at our own environment. We needed to understand how our products operate and how they can secure an organization as we brought AI in. And to do that, we acted as our own "Customer Zero" and used them internally. Netwrix Access Analyzer, for example, was one of the tools we used to review how access is provisioned across the company and see where things needed attention.

This testing process helped us secure Netwrix, and the experience also allowed us to provide feedback to improve the products, so our customers benefit as well.