A closer look at GenAI impact on businesses

This article includes excerpts from various reports that provide statistics and insights on GenAI and its impact on businesses.

CEOs accelerate GenAI adoption despite workforce resistance

IBM | IBM study | May 2024

• 63% of CEOs say their teams have the skills and knowledge to incorporate generative AI, but few understand how generative AI adoption impacts their organization’s workforce and culture.
• 40% of CEOs plan to hire additional staff because of generative AI, yet 53% of respondents say they are already struggling to fill key technology roles.

AI’s rapid growth puts pressure on CISOs to adapt to new security risks

Trellix | Mind of the CISO: Decoding the GenAI Impact | May 2024

• 76% of CISOs already use GenAI in their organizations, with most of the remaining 24% planning to.
• On average, CISOs believe GenAI has or could improve the productivity of their organization’s workforce by 38%.

GenAI enables cybersecurity leaders to hire more entry-level talent

Splunk | State of Security 2024: The Race to Harness AI | May 2024

• 93% of security leaders said public GenAI was in use across their respective organizations, and 91% reported using GenAI specifically for cybersecurity operations.
• 86% of cybersecurity leaders say GenAI can enable them to hire more entry-level talent to fill the skills gap, and 58% say onboarding entry-level talent will be quicker thanks to GenAI.

Security pros are cautiously optimistic about AI

Cloud Security Alliance and Google Cloud | State of AI and Security Survey Report | April 2024

• 55% of organizations are planning to implement security tools and solutions with GenAI and are exploring a diverse range of use cases for these technologies, with the top use cases being rule creation (21%), attack simulation (19%), and compliance violation detection (19%).

22% of employees admit to breaching company rules with GenAI

1Password | Balancing act: Security and productivity in the age of AI | April 2024

• 92% of security pros have security concerns around generative AI, with specific apprehensions including employees entering sensitive company data into an AI tool (48%), using AI systems trained with incorrect or malicious data (44%), and falling for AI-enhanced phishing attempts (42%).
• 57% say that using generative AI tools at work saves them time and makes them more productive. And a relatively small, but significant, group of employees (22%) admit to knowingly violating company rules on the use of generative AI.

AI tools put companies at risk of data exfiltration

Code42 | Annual Data Exposure Report 2024 | March 2024

• 79% of respondents believe their cybersecurity team has a shortage of skilled workers, leading cybersecurity leaders to turn to AI (83%) and GenAI (92%) technology to fill the talent gap.
• 87% are concerned their employees may inadvertently expose sensitive data to competitors by inputting it into GenAI.

Businesses banning or limiting use of GenAI over privacy risks

Cisco | 2024 Data Privacy Benchmark Study | February 2024

• 63% of organizations have established limitations on what data can be entered, 61% have limits on which employees can use GenAI tools, and 27% said their organization had banned GenAI applications altogether for the time being.

Unlocking GenAI’s full potential through work reinvention

Accenture | Reinvention in the age of generative AI | January 2024

• While 95% of workers see value in working with GenAI, 60% are also concerned about job loss, stress and burnout.
• 94% of workers surveyed reported being ready to learn GenAI skills, though just 5% of organizations are providing training at scale.

Adversaries exploit trends, target popular GenAI apps

Netskope | Cloud and Threat Report 2024 | January 2024

• More than 10% of enterprise employees access at least one generative AI application every month, compared to just 2% a year ago.
• In 2023, ChatGPT was the most popular generative AI application, accounting for 7% of enterprise usage.