<p>Many organizations actively plan to introduce artificial-intelligence-based (AI) applications to solve business problems, improve efficiency, and promote innovation. However, in this process, organizations face challenges in identifying AI application use cases as little research has focused on approaches for identifying them. Following the design science research paradigm, this paper designs an idea generation technique to enable employees to come up with AI use case ideas. The idea generation technique proposed is based on shadow IT usage analysis. Shadow IT represents all hardware, software, or any other IT solutions used by employees or business departments that have not received formal IT department approval. Shadow IT reflects perceived user needs that the official IT does not support. Further, using shadow IT to solve problems may also requires human intelligence, thus indicating potential applications for AI. This paper applied and evaluated the technique in a Chinese enterprise. This study demonstrates that considering shadow IT usage can give employees insights to develop AI use cases ideas by identifying deficiencies in information systems and places where they deploy their own intelligence. This research addresses a relevant practical problem and contributes to helping organizations to identify AI application business scenarios, specifically to identify employees’ AI use cases ideas about enhancing existing information systems.</p>