1.Small and medium-sized businesses prefer to embrace GenAI, but often ignore security measures
According to a survey of more than 900 global IT decision-makers conducted by Zscaler this year, 95% of organizations surveyed already use these technologies in some form in their business, although 89% of organizations believe that GenAI tools like ChatGPT are potential security risks.
Worryingly, 23% of users are not monitoring Genai usage at all, and 33% have not taken additional security measures for Genai apps. This is especially true for small businesses (500-999 employees). Fifty-one percent of respondents expect their organizations to see a further increase in interest in GenAI tools in 2024, requiring swift action to close the gap between Genai adoption and security.
2.Most enterprises don't know how to deal with genai application risks.
ISG research data shows that 85% of companies surveyed believe that investment in GenAI is significant or critical in the next 24 months. However, instead of taking a "blank slate" approach, most companies require or through a service provider to integrate the Genai app into their existing services.
One of the biggest concerns about generative AI is bias and misconceptions. When generative AI is unable to generate the right answer to a question, the "AI illusion" forms. In addition, enterprises are concerned about the possibility of data quality and model corruption or poisoning when applying AI. While many organizations see the potential of GenAI, few know how to handle the risks of AI adoption. The ISG report notes that the hurdles that companies need to overcome before making leaps and bounds through AI technology include security, copyright issues, ethical considerations, and legal issues.
3.The popularity of ChatGPT's app has sparked a surge in GenAI investment around the world.
AI is not a new technology, and for years, numerous tech companies have been investing heavily in ** and explainable AI. However, the research institute IDC said that the GPT-3 released by OpenAISeries 5 applications, which attracted worldwide attention and sparked a surge in investment in genai. IDC expects global spending on AI solutions to grow to more than $500 billion by 2027. Most organizations go through a transition to AI-enhanced products and services.
4.Enterprise technology leaders struggle to keep up with AI developments.
According to a new report by Harvey Nash, AI technology is comprehensively challenging organizations' traditional development models, but only 15% of enterprise technology leaders say they are ready for the adoption of GenAI, and 88% of respondents say it is essential to strengthen the regulation of AI technology adoption. The researchers found that despite the growth of the AI market, only 10% of organizations have implemented AI at scale, while many more are still in the pilot or small-scale implementation phase.
Concerns about the effective use of AI are significant, with nearly 45% of enterprise technology leaders saying that AI technology is currently the most scarce skill area for their organizations, and that the skills shortage will make it impossible for companies to keep up with the pace of technological change.
5.Businesses have good reason to be concerned about GenAI application security.
According to the survey data released by Portal26, two-thirds of respondents admitted to having a Genai security or abuse incident in the past year. 73% of respondents have already experienced a GENAI-related security incident, with 67% occurring in 2023. According to the researchers, there is a growing number of security concerns about GENAI applications and application risks, including shadow AI applications (58%), data privacy (56%), compliance governance (63%), intellectual property protection (62%), training bias (55%), data security (60%), and employee training (58%).
6.CISOs need to be prepared for AI-induced cyberattacks in advance.
According to monitoring data provided by Abnormal Security, organizations experienced a significant increase in the number and sophistication of email attacks in 2023, most likely due to the widespread use of GenAI technology by attackers.
What worries security researchers the most is that GenAI is not only making email attacks increasingly sophisticated, but also capable of helping attackers craft highly targeted and personalized fraudulent emails based on publicly available information.
In 2023, there are many people who are already experiencing these threats, 803% of respondents confirmed that their organization had received an AI-generated email attack. But the vast majority of security leaders are not well prepared to defend against AI-generated email attacks. Traditional security methods struggle to cope with AI-generated cyberattacks, with 46% of respondents lacking confidence in detecting and blocking AI-generated attacks.
7.Boost business growth by building GenAI capabilities.
According to IDC researchers, modern enterprise organizations should embark on a GenAI technology adoption journey for business success as soon as possible, which requires ongoing foundational activities related to GenAI investments, guidance on prioritizing use cases, and identifying the key stakeholders necessary to build and implement a successful plan. Building and using Genai models will require new capabilities, such as "prompt engineers" writing and testing prompts for Genai systems. Every organization must create a new skills map of core AI technologies and business capabilities to deploy GenAI at scale across the organization. Organizations should also establish personalized training programs for key roles.
8.Genai may introduce DevOps and SecOps into dangerous territory.
According to Sonatype, enterprise application security leaders and software development leaders have long believed that GenAI technology will lead to more pervasive security vulnerabilities in software development, potentially introducing DevOps and SECOPS into dangerous areas.
According to the survey, 97% of DevOps and SECOPS leaders surveyed are already using GenAI technology. However, the majority of respondents agreed that security risks were their biggest concern about the use of the technology. However, while DevOps and SECOPS respondents had a high risk perception of GenAI, there were significant differences in adoption rates. Forty-five percent of SECOPS leaders have implemented GenAI in their software development process, compared to 31 percent for DevOps. Fifty-seven percent of SECOPS respondents said that GenAI saved them at least six hours per week, compared to only 31 percent of respondents in DevOps.
9.Enterprises are anxious about the security implications of GenAI's SaaS services
According to Snow Software, enterprise IT leaders are grappling with the GenAI application risk challenge, and while 96% of respondents are still "confident or very confident" in their organization's SaaS security measures, IT leaders must now incorporate the risk impact of GenAI into their overall SaaS security approach. 23% of respondents said that the Genai app was the most worrying SaaS security issue. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they would be shocked and anxious if a SaaS vendor used GenAI without their knowledge.