Shadow AI Tools Slip Into Hospitals, Raising Security Concerns

Shadow AI in healthcare is here to stay, as medical professionals increasingly rely on AI tools to manage growing workloads, even as security teams struggle to monitor unsanctioned tools. The piece notes that physicians, doctors and clinicians use unauthorised AI and chatbots to boost efficiency, introducing new vulnerabilities and expanding attack surfaces when tools run on personal devices or in unmanaged environments.

Shadow AI is seen as a two-fold problem: it creates a visibility gap and generates workloads with large blast radii due to the significant privileges many AI agents require. During RSAC 2026, Joe Izzo, chief medical information officer for San Joaquin General Hospital, highlighted that clinicians adopt AI for dosing, information retrieval and clinical summaries, sometimes including billing-cycle assistants.

A shadow AI healthcare report by global infotech company Wolters Kluwer found that 41% of respondents were aware of colleagues using unauthorized AI tools, with almost 50% using them for faster workflows. Experts like Aviatrix CEO Doug Merritt and Banon emphasise containment, discovery and a risk-based, not a bans-based, approach to protect patient data. 6 April 2026.