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Douglas Murray is the chief executive officer at Auvik . There's no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our world. Organizations everywhere are adopting AI—with highly mixed results.
Some are experiencing significant business value, whereas others feel like they’re spinning their wheels. There's an AI hype bubble as everyone tries to figure out the best AI use cases for their own organization, as well as adding AI into their services and product offerings for customers. Of course, AI is transformative, but buyers and users still need to do their research before making product purchases.
People should also seriously consider how the use of AI will impact their organization, including the management of intellectual property, data privacy and brand reputation. One harmful aspect of the hype bubble is that many companies are taking old legacy products and just labeling them as AI-enabled. That’s more of a rebranding exercise for marketing teams rather than an actual technology breakthrough for product teams.
To move the needle in terms of real productivity and growth, companies must be discerning when it comes to solutions labeled “developed with AI” or “AI-enabled.” It’s also critical to determine which areas of the organization can benefit most from AI rather than looking to incorporate AI across all aspects of a business. Amid the rapid growth of AI, rampant tool sprawl and instances of shadow IT have complicated the management of IT troubleshooting.
Shadow IT can introduce new risks from employees who take core IP code and run it through generative AI tools. Such a scenario poses potentially huge business risks from a compliance and security standpoint. Automated network management can improve compliance practices by allowing IT to know where all their systems and SaaS services are located.
Armed with this knowledge, IT teams can create policies to lock down intellectual property and protect customer data. Dark Web Facial ID Farm Warning—Hackers Build Identity Fraud Database Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Friday, December 27 NYT ‘Strands’ Today: Hints, Spangram And Answers For Friday, December 27th Simply put, the hackers and bad actors target vectors that are new and pervasively used. AI will be no different.
Shadow AI, Attack Surface Management And The Need For Oversight By AI Councils Nearly two-thirds of business organizations (65%) regularly use generative AI today, or nearly double the adoption rate from 2023, according to a 2024 McKinsey Global Survey . Similarly, government adoption of AI is way up. According to McKinsey researchers in the same report, "For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50%.
This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72%." As AI continues to transform industries, the phenomenon of shadow AI emerges as a significant concern. Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and technologies within an organization, often bypassing official IT channels and governance structures.
This can lead to a myriad of issues, including data privacy breaches, intellectual property risks and compliance challenges. As employees experiment with generative AI tools, they may inadvertently expose sensitive information or create vulnerabilities within the organization's infrastructure. To mitigate these risks, it's crucial for companies to implement robust oversight mechanisms, such as AI councils, to monitor and regulate the use of AI technologies.
These councils can ensure that AI is deployed responsibly, aligning with the organization's strategic goals while safeguarding against potential threats. By fostering a culture of transparency and accountability, organizations can harness the transformative power of AI while minimizing the risks associated with shadow AI. Attack surface management (ASM) also plays an important role in mitigating the risks associated with AI-driven data breaches by providing comprehensive visibility and control over an organization's digital ecosystem.
As AI technologies are integrated into business operations, they can inadvertently expand the attack surface by introducing new vulnerabilities and entry points for cyber threats. ASM helps organizations identify and manage these vulnerabilities by continuously monitoring and analyzing their IT infrastructure, including SaaS applications, to detect unauthorized access, shadow IT and compliance issues. By leveraging ASM, companies can proactively address potential security gaps, helping ensure that AI implementations don't compromise data integrity and confidentiality, thereby reducing the risk of data breaches.
This aligns with the broader theme of AI posing risks to data security, as it emphasizes the need for robust security measures to safeguard sensitive information in an increasingly AI-driven world. Good Governance Starts By Building Trust Without some type of AI governance body, it can be very hard to build alignment for new projects across an organization. An AI council helps instill confidence by providing transparency and by recognizing the perspectives of diverse stakeholders.
An AI governance body can also help align constituents for faster decision-making by serving as a steering committee that connects departments and bridges silos. Our AI council at Auvik matches our company to where the market is today by finding the most compelling AI use cases for our needs. We're seeing more uses of AI for marketing and demand generation, as people can get working drafts of their projects out the door much more quickly to accelerate the pace of business.
We also use AI on the engineering side for our hackathons, where we look for ways to optimize our R&D infrastructure and get better solution feature velocity. Right now, our AI council is focused on ensuring that our own people are using AI wisely and securely, more so than for product development. But as AI adoption continues to drive business efficiencies, going forward, it will also be used to design more products and solutions that improve the daily experiences of our customers and users.
I expect other companies with similar mindsets to follow suit. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?.
