Poorly designed internal AI apps are failing to deliver the experiences employees need to excel, further fueling shadow AI’s growing dominance. With 92% of companies planning to increase their AI investments and only 21% of office workers saying AI apps significantly improve their productivity, more businesses are grappling with how to close a 71% gap between expectations and reality. More organizations need to challenge themselves to improve the employee experiences their internally created apps deliver. “The biggest paradox in enterprise AI adoption is that companies are spending heavily, but employees don’t feel the benefit,” Vineet Arora, CTO at WinWire told. ” “This isn’t about the algorithms, it’s about usability. If the AI tools don’t feel as intuitive as the ones employees already trust, adoption stalls and shadow AI fills the gap.” The majority of employees creating shadow AI apps aren’t acting maliciously or trying to harm a company. They’re grappling with growing amounts of increasingly complex work, chronic time shortages, and tighter deadlines. Building AI tools using a blueprint for usability that is years or even decades old invites shadow AI. IT teams are missing an opportunity to deliver exceptional new employee experiences by staying in the comfort zone of building internal apps like they always have. The result is becoming predictable as shadow AI flourishes. The proliferation of shadow AI financial analysis apps integrated with APIs from the world’s top AI companies, including OpenAI, Perplexity, Google and others. Their widespread use in consulting companies continues to lead all others, as many employees see it as a hedge against layoffs. By the end of the year, 115,000 shadow AI apps will be embedded in client delivery workflows, with mobile apps showing the fastest growth.