Discover every AI tool across your organization 

AI innovation moves faster than traditional governance processes. While organizations may standardize on a small number of approved AI platforms, employees continue to discover and adopt new tools long before governance, security, or legal teams can review them. AI Activation Hub, powered by AI Drive, closes this gap by surfacing new AI usage as it emerges across the digital workplace in the new AI tools governance functionality. 

Unlike approaches designed to inventory AI assets or monitor AI traffic, Nexthink, focuses on how AI is being used across the organization. Using browser and endpoint telemetry, the new AI tools governance functionality continuously detects AI tool activity across the digital workplace and automatically maintains an up-to-date inventory of both approved and shadow AI applications without manual configuration or periodic audits. 

As new AI tools are discovered, they are immediately surfaced for governance review, with applications requiring attention automatically prioritized as Pending review. Governance teams gain a continuously updated view of AI tools in use across the organization, allowing them to identify emerging AI adoption patterns as they happen rather than months later during procurement reviews, application audits, or security assessments. 

Understand every AI tool before making a decision 

Every organization should evaluate the privacy, security, and compliance implications of emerging AI tools, but the challenge is speed. New AI applications can spread through an organization in days or even hours, giving governance teams a narrow window to understand potential risks and respond appropriately. The immediate priority is triage: quickly determining whether a tool warrants further review, whether it poses an unacceptable risk, or whether safeguards should be applied before employees begin sharing sensitive information, company data, or intellectual property through unsanctioned AI services. 

The new AI tools governance functionality accelerates this process by providing contextual governance information directly within the workflow. For each detected AI tool, administrators can review tool descriptions, country of origin, governance status, adoption monitoring status, and user interaction trends. These AI-generated risk insights provide additional context by analyzing the tool's privacy policy, terms of service, security and trust documentation, and compliance information. Nexthink evaluates considerations such as data training and retention practices, compliance posture, enterprise readiness, and incident history to help organizations better understand potential risks before making governance decisions. 

Teams can also review when a tool was first discovered, how many employees were interacting with it at the time of discovery, and how usage has evolved since then. This additional context helps IT, end-user computing, security, and compliance teams quickly understand whether a tool introduces unnecessary risk, duplicates existing capabilities, or warrants further review. 

Govern AI with adaptive policies 

Once an AI tool has been assessed, organizations need a simple and scalable way to define how it should be governed across the enterprise. 

The new AI tools governance functionality allows administrators to assign one of three governance policies to every detected AI tool: 

• Recommended for trusted tools employees are encouraged to use. 
• Allowed for tools that remain accessible but require additional oversight. 
• Prohibited for tools that do not meet organizational security, compliance, or governance standards. 

Governance teams maintain an at-a-glance view of AI tools across each policy category while newly discovered applications continue to flow into the Pending review queue until a decision is made. 

Governance policies are designed to evolve alongside the AI landscape. As vendors introduce new capabilities, regulations change, or internal policies are updated, administrators can revisit any AI tool, change its governance status, and immediately apply those decisions across the organization. A tool previously categorized as Allowed may later become Recommended as confidence grows, while another may move to Prohibited as new risks emerge. This transforms governance from a one-time approval exercise into a continuous process that adapts alongside changing business priorities, employee behavior, and AI innovation. 

Redirect employees toward approved AI solutions 

Traditional governance approaches often stop at blocking access, creating friction for employees without solving the underlying business need that drove them to seek out the tool in the first place. 

Nexthink takes a different approach by helping organizations guide employees toward preferred and approved AI solutions. When users attempt to access an AI tool governed by an Allowed or Prohibited policy, administrators can notify employees of the governance decision and recommend an approved alternative directly within the experience. 

An employee attempting to use an unsanctioned AI assistant can be seamlessly redirected toward Microsoft Copilot or another approved enterprise solution, allowing productivity to continue rather than forcing employees to abandon the task altogether. 

The experience does not stop at redirection. Organizations can use Nexthink Guides to provide in-application guidance and training directly within approved AI tools, helping employees understand new workflows, learn best practices, and become productive faster. 

Whether employees are transitioning from one AI assistant to another, adopting a newly approved enterprise standard, or being guided away from third-party AI applications toward internally developed AI agents and LLMs, organizations can actively shape AI adoption rather than simply enforce policy. The result is governance that encourages productive behavior, consolidates investment around strategic AI platforms, accelerates adoption of approved technologies, and helps organizations maximize the value of both enterprise AI investments and custom AI experiences built specifically for their business. 

Activate AI safely and at scale 

Enterprise AI governance requires more than visibility alone. Organizations need the ability to discover emerging AI usage as it happens, quickly assess potential risks, apply governance consistently, and guide employees toward approved solutions without slowing innovation. By bringing discovery, assessment, governance, and employee guidance together in a single workflow, AI Activation Hub, powered by AI Drive, helps organizations activate AI safely and confidently while maintaining the speed and flexibility modern businesses require.

To see how AI Activation Hub works in practice, watch our AI Activation Hub overview video.

You can also learn more about the complete solution, its capabilities, and how it helps organizations accelerate AI adoption while maintaining governance by reading the AI Activation Hub solution brief.