Monitoring employee use of AI tools with Teramind

Why monitor how staff use AI?

Generative AI tools can reach a workplace before an acceptable use policy does. People may paste customer emails into chat tools to draft replies, upload spreadsheets for analysis, or install desktop AI apps and coding agents that act on their behalf. It is usually well-meant, but it raises three questions an organisation needs to answer:

• Adoption: which AI tools are in use, by whom, and are they the ones you have approved?
• Data exposure: is personal data, client information, source code or a credential being shared with an AI service?
• Accountability: when an AI agent runs commands or touches files on a work computer, can you see what it did and on whose behalf?

Network and cloud security tools see some of this. Teramind's argument is that the endpoint sees the rest: desktop AI apps, browser-based chats, terminal agents and local tools all run on the computer where its agent sits. For the wider security strategy around AI, see our sister site on generative AI security.

What Teramind's AI Usage Control dashboard shows

In Teramind NextGen, the AI Usage Control dashboard brings AI activity together in four tabs:

• AI Application Usage: time spent on AI applications and websites, by department and employee, with the most-used tools and AI categories. Useful for measuring adoption and spotting unapproved tools.
• AI Chats: the messages employees exchange with AI tools, with direction, tool, model where reported, message content and attachments, and a link to the screen recording at the moment each message was sent.
• AI Risk: alerts from your AI rules, for example an API key pasted into an AI tool, a file uploaded to an AI chat or card data shared with AI, with heatmaps and a count of unsanctioned AI applications.
• Agentic AI: activity of autonomous AI agents running on employee computers, including agentic alerts and the local files they access. Teramind says this tab currently focuses on the OpenClaw agent.

The AI Risk and Agentic AI tabs need Teramind's AI Usage policy and its preset rules created and enabled; the dashboard walks you through that, and some preset rules rely on DLP-plan content rules. Teramind also notes what it does not capture: audio input and prompts embedded in images are outside the AI Usage channel.

Which AI tools Teramind covers

You choose which AI services to track in your monitoring profiles. Teramind's platform support matrix lists, among others:

Teramind says it keeps adding support for new AI services and agents, so the list changes; we can check current coverage for your tools at scoping. Beyond named services, Teramind classifies applications and websites into AI categories (such as AI-native platforms, native AI applications, AI-augmented SaaS and agentic browsers), so the dashboard can also show AI tools it does not capture conversations for.

Rules that act on AI content are fullest on Windows. Teramind's matrix shows AI usage content rules on Linux for the web services above, but on macOS only for Microsoft Copilot on the web, so a Mac-heavy organisation should plan around that.

Enforcing your AI policy: warn, block or redirect

Visibility tells you what is happening; rules let you act on it. Depending on plan, Teramind can:

• Flag unapproved AI tools: detect when a desktop AI app, AI-native browser or unapproved AI website is launched, and warn, block or notify.
• Steer people to the approved tool: Teramind describes rules that tell personal and corporate AI accounts apart and can warn, block or redirect users to your sanctioned instance.
• Inspect what is shared: on the DLP plan, AI Usage content rules check prompts and file uploads for personal data, card numbers, health data, source code or your own custom patterns, and can stop them before they reach the AI service. This works on Windows and Linux; on macOS it covers Microsoft Copilot on the web only.
• Catch secrets: preset rules detect API keys pasted into AI tools.
• Record evidence: trigger screen recording when a rule fires, with OCR available to read text in AI side panels that do not expose it any other way.

Warnings are often the best first step. A message that explains the policy at the moment someone is about to paste client data teaches more than a training session months earlier, and pairs well with safe use of AI training.

Monitoring AI agents on work computers

AI agents are a newer problem. A coding assistant in a terminal, an agent driving a browser or a local automation tool can run many commands in seconds using the logged-in person's access. Teramind's AI agent pages describe how it handles them:

• Console command monitoring: a transcript of commands run in terminals, including those issued by an agent, so you can see what was installed, changed or deleted. Teramind supports this on Windows and Linux, not macOS.
• Agent detection: Teramind describes spotting agents by behaviour, such as command activity far faster than a person could type, and its AI usage rules on Windows cover agent tools such as OpenClaw.
• Same rules for agents as for people: website blocks, file rules and content rules apply whether a person or an agent performs the action.
• Window-title triggers: start recording automatically when a terminal or app switches to an AI agent session.

The Agentic AI tab of the AI Usage Control dashboard brings agent alerts together, and Teramind says it currently focuses on OpenClaw, so for other agents you rely on console command monitoring, rules and recordings. If you are also deciding which agents to allow at all, our sister site has guidance on an AI acceptable use policy and on shadow AI.

Which Teramind plan you need

AI features are spread across Teramind's plans:

Starter tracks websites and applications, so it shows that someone visited an AI site, but not the conversation. Teramind's pricing page lists AI conversations recording, AI data exfiltration control and agentic AI governance from UAM; rules that inspect what is inside a prompt or upload need DLP. For most AI governance projects UAM gives visibility and DLP adds content-aware prevention. See Teramind pricing and plans and ask us for a quote.

AI monitoring and UK data protection law

Capturing AI prompts means capturing content that people type, which can include their own personal data and other people's. The same UK rules apply as for any monitoring:

• Purpose first. Protecting confidential data and enforcing an AI policy are reasonable purposes, but decide whether you need full conversation capture or whether usage data and content rules that act without anyone reading the text are enough.
• DPIA. The ICO recommends a DPIA for monitoring even where there is no specific high risk, and capturing what people type into AI tools is intrusive. Do a DPIA before you switch on AI chat capture. See employee monitoring DPIA.
• Tell staff. Put AI monitoring in your monitoring policy and your AI acceptable use policy, in plain words. See writing an employee monitoring policy.
• Limit access. Use Teramind's role-based access control so only named people can read AI conversations, and set a retention period.
• Human review. Teramind's responsible-use notice says its outputs should not be the sole basis of employment decisions; review the context before acting on any alert.

The employee monitoring law UK hub covers the wider framework. This is general information; take legal advice for your situation.

How Forever Systems helps

We supply Teramind and can help you set up AI monitoring that matches your AI policy:

1. Policy check. Start from what your AI acceptable use policy allows, so the rules enforce a decision you have already made and communicated.
2. Discovery. Switch on AI Usage monitoring for a pilot group to see which tools are in use before you block anything.
3. Rules. Configure warnings, redirects to approved tools and, on DLP, content rules for the data that matters to you.
4. Privacy settings. Restrict who can see AI conversations, set retention and decide whether full chat capture is needed at all.
5. Keeping up. We can help you review the AI service list, rules and agents as tools change.

Contact us to talk about how your staff use AI and get a quote.