Grammarly in Enterprise Environments: Insights From 1 Million Corporate Users

In our recent analysis of the top 10 browser extensions used by corporate users in 2025, one tool stood out clearly above the rest:

Grammarly, developed by the U.S.-based company Superhuman Platform Inc.

Out of nearly one million corporate users analyzed, Grammarly was the most widely installed browser extension in business environments. That alone makes it one of the most widely deployed third-party software components inside enterprise browsers today, often without formal approval, visibility, or governance.

Grammarly’s popularity is easy to understand. It improves writing quality, saves time, and increasingly offers AI-powered assistance that feels indispensable in modern knowledge work. But its position as the most-used corporate browser extension also raises an uncomfortable question:

What happens when the most popular tool is also one of the most intrusive?

Grammarly’s Quiet Presence in Corporate Workflows

Unlike many extensions that operate in the background, Grammarly interacts directly with user-generated content. It can process text typed into emails, documents, chat tools, and web forms.

In practice, this means it may see:

• Internal emails and chat messages

• Draft contracts and proposals

• Customer data entered into CRM systems

• Source code or technical documentation

• Credentials typed into web portals

For most users, this happens invisibly. Grammarly feels like a spellchecker. In reality, it is an always-on AI writing assistant integrated into the browser.

What Incogni’s Analysis Reveals

A recent analysis by privacy research firm Incogni¹ has added fuel to the debate around Grammarly’s data practices. Their research highlights how Grammarly’s architecture and business model depend on processing large volumes of user text, which raises concerns around:

• How long data is retained

• Whether text can be used for product training

• What metadata is collected

• How enterprise data boundaries are enforced

Incogni’s report doesn’t claim malicious intent, but it underscores a critical point: AI writing assistants fundamentally rely on data collection, and enterprise users often have limited visibility into what is captured and how it is used.

Why This Matters for SAM and Security Teams

From a Software Asset Management and IT governance perspective, Grammarly represents a new class of software risk:

1. Invisible Software Layer

Browser extensions sit outside traditional software inventories. Many organizations still track only installed applications and SaaS subscriptions, missing the extension layer entirely.

2. Shadow AI in the Browser

Grammarly is effectively an AI tool deployed at scale without procurement, risk assessment, or data governance controls in many organizations.

3. Potential Data Leakage Vector

Even when vendors act responsibly, the act of transmitting corporate text outside the organization introduces legal, compliance, and regulatory questions, especially in regulated industries.

4. Contract and Licensing Blind Spots

Grammarly Business exists, but many enterprise users rely on free or personal versions, creating licensing and compliance ambiguity.

The Bigger Picture: The Browser Is Becoming the Operating System

Grammarly’s position at the top of our corporate extension list is a signal of a broader trend: The browser is now a primary software platform, and extensions are becoming enterprise software.

Yet most organizations have no formal process to discover, assess, or govern this layer.

What Organizations Should Do Next

Rather than banning productivity tools outright, organizations should focus on visibility and governance:

• Discover which browser extensions are actually installed

• Classify extensions by risk and business value

• Define policies for AI assistants and data-processing tools

• Align procurement, security, and SAM around browser-based software

• Educate employees on data risks and approved tools

Turning Policy Into Visibility

Most organizations simply don’t have a clear picture of what is installed inside their employees’ browsers. Traditional inventory tools focus on installed applications and SaaS subscriptions. Browser extensions fall in between, and that blind spot makes governance reactive instead of proactive.

Xensam extends traditional SAM visibility into the browser layer, with detection of more than 3,000 browser extensions across both Windows and macOS environments. That means organizations can move from assumptions to data:

• Which extensions are actually installed

• How widely they are used

• Whether AI assistants are deployed at scale

• Where password managers or screen capture tools are present

• Which tools fall outside internal policy

When Grammarly emerged as the most widely used extension in our analysis of nearly one million corporate users, that insight wasn’t based on surveys or guesswork. It was based on real inventory data.

For SAM teams, this capability closes a long-standing gap. For security teams, it enables informed risk classification. For procurement, it brings shadow tools into governance discussions.

Because before you can decide whether a tool like Grammarly is a productivity enabler or a data exposure risk, you first need to know where it exists.

And in many organizations today, that visibility simply isn’t there.