Finding Pearls Among Perils With AI Productivity Solutions

AI adoption in enterprises boosts productivity but brings challenges like unapproved use, data governance, and balancing innovation with risk management.

AI in the enterprise can offer pearls of productivity. However, it also contains risks and can produce perils for CISOs and CTOs. Striking the right balance between opportunity and risk will likely be a successful equation for enterprise organizations.

In my last column, I shared the findings from my informal poll with leading CISOs on AI’s impact on people, policies, and processes. Feedback from many has been that it was an eye-opening article putting a spotlight on the momentum AI has gained in enterprise operations since last year.

Looking back over a year to my April 2023 column, I stated that from my perspective in the venture world, AI penetration in the enterprise has barely scratched the surface. What a difference 18 months makes.

Today, leading enterprises are implementing and evaluating AI-powered solutions to help automate data collection and mapping, streamline administrative support, elevate marketing efficiencies, boost customer support, strengthen their cyber security defenses, and gain a strategic edge.

Over the summer, I connected again with C-Suite members on these topics, asking several questions about AI’s changing influence within their organizations. Their answers are summarized below, and I think what you’ll find is also very enlightening.

What existing (or legacy) technologies within your enterprise is AI impacting?

From my discussions around this topic, it is clear that AI has truly begun to penetrate the enterprise in the past year, often being incorporated into existing systems, in some cases replacing legacy systems, and in others being a net new product deployment. While a year ago, most of these AI deployments were tire-kicking exercises and Proof of Concepts (POCs). Real deployments at scale are now occurring for a variety of use cases.[…]