Artificial Intelligence

Uploaded on 2025-03-21 in FREE TO VIEW, TECHNOLOGY--Resilience, TECHNOLOGY-Key Areas-Artificial Intelligence

AI has transformed the way we work for good. According to global research, 71% of respondents say their organizations use GenAI in at least one business function, from text outputs to image generation and coding. But despite the high level of adoption, only 3 in 10 executives believe their current level of AI adoption sets them ahead of competitors.

Many companies are rapidly accelerating their AI adoption to catch up. But, in doing so, they risk swapping speed for haste and opening the door to serious security risks.

What AI Looks Like Without Security

When a company implements cutting-edge AI, the emphasis is on the opportunities. But organizations must also be mindful of the risks.

Let’s use document generation as an example. Every document a company creates is a critical digital business asset because of the amount of information it contains. It therefore needs to be governed and protected. However, more than half (55%) of organizations have used unvetted GenAI tools in the workplace—leading organizations to lose control over where that data is processed, stored or even used for future model training.

Emerging Security Risks From Rapid AI Adoption

Unvetted AI has the potential to disrupt businesses, either financially, reputationally or both. Without a clear AI strategy, organizations are exposing themselves to a number of dangers that put their future in jeopardy, including:

Reputational risk: Trust is a key value driver for businesses. But without a robust security framework, using AI to generate documents can lead to data breaches caused by insecure AI integrations, model training on sensitive data, or unauthorized AI tool usage. Without clear guidelines, employees may misuse AI tools—for example, compromising the accuracy of financial reporting and swapping legal compliance for risk.

Increased prevalence of AI-powered attacks: Attackers are weaponizing AI to launch more sophisticated, scalable, and targeted cyberattacks. AI lowers the barrier to entry for cybercriminals, making it profitable to target not just large enterprises but small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) that may lack robust defenses. Without proactive threat detection and response, organizations risk becoming an easy target.

Regulatory and compliance fines: Beyond reputational risks, there are regulatory ones. Organizations must navigate compliance frameworks like the EU AI Act. Those that fail to enforce security controls and governance policies for AI usage risk hefty fines, legal repercussions, and reputational damage.

Operational disturbances: AI is often seen as a productivity booster—particularly for document workflows—but rushing adoption can waste more time than it saves. Without a clear AI strategy, employees won’t know how to use AI effectively and take matters into their own hands.

Practical Steps Businesses Can Take To Stay Ahead

Using GenAI to generate documents needed for daily business operations requires trust and accuracy. Not just to protect the business, but to realise AI’s true potential. Below are some practical steps organizations must take to ensure they are staying ahead of AI-driven threats and that innovation is secure.

Implement an AI risk management strategy: Organizations must build an AI risk management strategy that is robust and thoughtful and identifies risks, develops policies and implements controls. Organizations can integrate AI risk management into their already existing broader cybersecurity governance structure, aligning with standards such as NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001.

Enable a responsible (and fun) AI culture: Responsible AI adoption is about culture, as well as oversight. The major culprits behind shadow AI are employees—BUT this is often because they want to improve the quality of their work and take their PowerPoints or PDFs to the next level. Shadow AI proliferates when employees lack secure, enterprise-approved AI tools and AI usage policies must define acceptable use, prohibited actions, and access controls.

Enable real-time monitoring: Organizations must be able to detect and respond to unauthorized AI usage before it leads to a breach. They should start by leveraging AI usage analytics to track who is using AI, for what purpose, and whether it aligns with their security policies. Behavioral anomaly detection can flag suspicious AI interactions that could signal data exfiltration or adversarial manipulation.

Further, AI activity monitoring should be integrated with existing SIEM and UEBA solutions to correlate AI usage with broader security incidents. By maintaining continuous visibility, organizations can stay ahead of emerging threats and prevent AI, and critical business assets, from becoming security liabilities.

Security Is A Team Sport

For organizations to make their rapid AI adoption a success, they need to ensure a robust strategy matches it step-by-step. This is how companies can evolve from being an organization that uses AI, to one that uses AI within an environment of openness, collaboration and trust.

This is what can take document generation to the next level - in a responsible way - and turn it into a true business accelerator.

Ellen Benaim is Chief Information Security Officer at Templafy

Image:

You Might Also Read:

Iran Deploys AI - Guided Missiles & Drones:

If you like this website and use the comprehensive 7,000-plus service supplier Directory, you can get unrestricted access, including the exclusive in-depth Directors Report series, by signing up for a Premium Subscription.