The rapid spread of artificial intelligence tools has dramatically changed how corporate applications are developed. Business professionals outside the engineering department can now generate complex code, automating their daily tasks without waiting for formal IT support. However, this shift creates a massive blind spot for major corporations, as unvetted software bypasses standard compliance and security checks.
From corporate bottlenecks to shadow IT
Antigoni Kourou, Founder of NEKOD, spent a decade managing digital transformation processes at ING Bank, where she witnessed business units facing long queues for official IT support and automation teams. Organisations globally are struggling with this exact friction. As digital transformation accelerates, internal automation teams are simply unable to scale fast enough to meet business demands, leaving employees stuck with highly repetitive, manual tasks simply because their use cases do not justify a full-scale IT intervention.
This persistent bottleneck inevitably fuels the rise of shadow IT — software built and deployed by employees without the knowledge or approval of the central IT department. While enterprise leaders and chief information security officers are understandably terrified of this unchecked digital sprawl, attempting to block it outright is a losing battle. Employees who are denied official tools will simply find workarounds, and organisations that ban bottom-up innovation risk alienating their most proactive talent while falling behind in technological adaptation.