New report sheds light on challenges to adopting generative AI at work
Security concerns continue to hold back organisations despite their eagerness to adopt generative AI, according to a new report.
The report, which surveyed 800 IT and business leaders across the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, revealed that security remains a "top roadblock" to adopting AI.
It was cited by 38% of the respondents, emerging as the biggest challenge preventing the adoption of the rapidly developing technology in workplaces.
"While organisations on the sidelines grapple with challenges related to cost, data quality, and daunting infrastructure integration/modernisation requirements, security remains the top roadblock," read the research, which was co-sponsored from Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) and Hitachi Vantara.
"GenAI security remains a hot topic as organisations seek to overcome challenges such as data privacy, confidentiality, potential misuse/abuse, data leaks, unauthorised access, and more."
Other concerns surrounding gen AI include:
- cost and technical debt (27%
- data availability and quality (27%)
integration challenges with workflows and/or processes (25%).
This comes despite 97% of organisations viewing gen AI initiatives as a top-five priority in their organisation, according to the report.
Source: Enterprise Infrastructure for Generative AI: A Foundation for Success
Opportunity for employers
But these security concerns about AI are not unfounded, given that IT leaders worldwide have been urging caution on using gen AI tools to prevent confidential corporate information from leaking.
Jesse Todd, CEO of EncompaaS, previously told HRD that even "seemingly harmless data uploads can contain metadata or context" can risk revealing sensitive information.
"This can lead to unintentional exposure of confidential details," he warned.
But there are organisations moving forward with gen AI despite these risks and are using them as an opportunity to improve their security measures, according to the ESG and Hitachi Vantara report. wIt noted that there is a growing trend of organisations "embracing the potential of GenAI to enhance certain security measures and tasks, such as providing advanced threat detection and enhancing automated response systems."
"Between security challenges and potential benefits, decision-makers must strike a careful balance in their pursuit of GenAI," the report read.
