Despite associated security risks, Indian organisations continue to use generative AI: Report

Organisations are feeling pressure to use generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools despite significant security concerns. Over 90% of Indian organisations consider tools like ChatGPT to be a potential security risk but 95% still continue to use them in some guise in their business, a recent survey by cloud security company Zscaler has found.

For this survey, Zscaler interviewed 900 global IT decision-makers. All the respondents said that the lack of resources to monitor the usage of generative AI act as a hindrance to effectively use these tools; 75% of them pointed to the lack of skills or talent to implement this technology.

"GenAI tools, including ChatGPT and others, hold immense promise for businesses in terms of speed, innovation, and efficiency," emphasized Sanjay Kalra, VP Product Management at Zscaler. "However, with the current ambiguity surrounding their security measures, a mere 30% of organisations in India perceive their adoption as an opportunity rather than a threat. This not only jeopardizes their business and customer data integrity, but also squanders their tremendous potential.”

To be sure, a report by market research firm Gartner in October showed that by 2026, more than 80% of enterprises will have used generative AI applications programming interface (APIs) or models, along with deployment of generative AI enabled applications in production environments. A Gartner spokesperson had then said that generative AI, beyond just foundational models, has become a top priority for C-suite. There has been an increase in demand for generative AI solutions in industries like healthcare, life sciences, legal, financial services and the public sector.

During the Q2FY24 financial results declaration in October, all the top five IT services company in country reiterated that they are bullish on generative AI. They have been building proofs of concepts along with training their staff in the technology. That said, it would still be a quarters before generative AI becomes an effective revenue churner for these companies.