• Nearly three-quarters of enterprise AI usage lacks proper oversight
• Workers are driving even more AI adoption, shadow AI and an "AI execution gap"
• Regulations will require businesses to have more governance and audibility going forward

New research from Lenovo has claimed companies are no longer facing problems with AI adoption – investments continue to soar, but workers are failing to adopt uniformly and companies are battling with good governance.

At the moment, more than 70% of enterprise AI usage lacks proper oversight which creates an "AI execution gap," risking security and proper control.

Lenovo's data has found more than seven in 10 workers use AI weekly, and up to one in three use it outside of IT governance.

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AI adoption isn't the issue, it's governance

With shadow AI on the rise, around three in five (61%) IT leaders are reporting increased AI-related threats, and yet only 31% feel confident in managing them.

Even employees (43%) worry about data exposure caused by AI despite shadow AI usage, suggesting they could be unhappy with current organizational governance, tool access and training.

Lenovo says a "two-speed workforce" is emerging, whereby some workers use secure AI tools while others tap into unmanaged, unauthorized ones, but more importantly, attack surfaces are expanding as a result and the poor visibility is making it hard for companies to scale their AI deployments effectively.

Looking ahead, companies are faced with two distinct and opposing problems – with AI usage largely employee-led and 80% of workers expecting AI usage to increase over the next year, businesses across the UK and Europe will also face increased regulatory pressure in terms of governance, audibility and risk management.

"Usage is growing faster than organizations can control or secure it," Digital Workplace Solutions VP and GM Rakshit Ghura concluded. "Without that control, AI introduces as much risk and cost as it does opportunity."

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