Introducing Vendor AI Usage: Tracking how vendor AI impacts your data

Artificial intelligence is spreading through the SaaS ecosystem. From CRMs with automated outreach to HR platforms with candidate recommendations, AI is now embedded across nearly every tool teams use. Yet few organizations can clearly see where and how these AI-driven capabilities are operating, leaving compliance and security teams struggling to meet evolving regulations, reduce data risk, and make confident business decisions about procuring third party vendors.

When AI activity goes unseen, compliance weakens and data risks grow—creating a visibility gap that limits an organization’s ability to adapt.

To stay in control of their data, companies need a complete and real-time understanding of how their vendors are using AI. We’re excited to share Transcend Vendor AI Usage, the latest feature in our Responsible AI suite, built to give companies clear visibility into how third parties are using AI so they can manage risk and compliance from a position of strength.

Meeting the growing challenge of vendor AI risk

Today, understanding an organization’s data environment extends beyond simply knowing the tools its employees are using, into specifics of how those tools are using AI.

This is because SaaS vendors are rapidly rolling out new AI features, often without clear disclosures of how those models interact with customer data. Unfortunately, relying on safeguards in vendor contracts is a static, inefficient approach to managing AI risks. Especially since, combined with the explosion of interconnected systems and APIs, data now moves and transforms faster than most risk or compliance teams can see, creating new layers of unseen exposure.

Even well-intentioned AI tools introduce unforeseen risk through the large volume of training data required, and without systems to detect and manage that risk, AI governance initiatives are inherently less effective.

Finally, new regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act and NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework place heavy emphasis on organizations to demonstrate knowledge of how their third party vendors process data. Without that understanding, regulatory compliance is incomplete.

What true visibility looks like

With Transcend, visibility means more than maintaining a vendor list–it’s understanding which vendors have introduced AI capabilities, the models they use, and how those models handle an organization's data,retention, and consent..

While most tools only offer a static snapshot of vendor AI usage, Transcend delivers continuous, shared visibility across privacy, security, and procurement teams, creating a single source of truth for AI risk.

With clear insight into how vendor AI features use an organization’s data, its governance, privacy and risk leaders can create more complete risk assessments, easily maintain compliance documentation, and make better informed procurement and data sharing decisions..

Transcend Vendor AI Usage provides those insights by automatically surfacing the details companies need to manage AI risk and accountability, including:

• Detection of AI features, models, and policies.
• Contextual data mapping that flags which systems likely contain sensitive data, enabling companies to granularly scrutinize vendor AI uses.
• Integrated workflows that connect vendor AI usage findings to compliance reports like your record of processing activities (RoPA) and assessments.

Powered by an LLM-based scanning engine, Transcend continuously scans vendor ecosystems and technical documentation to maintain a live, accurate picture of your AI landscape. AI governance needs this level of visibility to succeed, and Transcend Vendor AI Usage helps organizations identify risk and stay confident in a changing regulatory landscape.

Interested in building out your foundation for AI governance? Schedule a call with our team and we’ll give you a personalized tour.