Shadow IT in the Age of AI: When Payroll Wants Python
Today I want to talk about Shadow IT. Not Shadow AI — I’ll cover that another day. Shadow IT is those tools and systems folks spin up outside IT’s blessing: sprawling Excel workbooks, legacy Access databases, SaaS apps bought quietly. They’re not always reckless — most of the time they’re born from urgency and ingenuity. I recently heard an anecdote that gives the flavour. A payroll specialist, wrestling with a tedious task, asked if their company could buy Python. They had asked Gemini how to solve the problem, and the model suggested Python. Taken at face value, it is a ’lack of context’ problem but it also reveals a powerful instinct: people will chase any tool that promises a quick fix, even if they don’t quite know what they’re asking for. That impulse — the creative scramble — is the heartbeat of Shadow IT. ...