GenAI Tools Will Permeate All Areas of the Enterprise

There is significant interest among organizations in using generative AI (GenAI) tools for a wide range of use cases, according to Dark Reading's first-ever survey about GenAI. Many different groups within enterprises can use this technology, but these tools seems to be most commonly in use by data analytics, cybersecurity, research, and marketing teams.

Almost a third of the respondents say their organizations have pilot programs or are otherwise exploring the use of GenAI tools, while 29% say they are still considering whether to use these tools. Just 22% say their organizations are actively using GenAI tools and 17% say they are in the process of implementation. In terms of how their organizations use or plan to use generative AI, respondents point to actions such as analyzing data and identifying trends, crafting documents, writing code or boilerplate text in software development projects, automating repetitive tasks, forecasting trends and anomalies, and researching complex topics.

Marketing and sales groups most often use AI generators to create first drafts of text documents or develop personalized marketing messages and summarize text documents. Product and service groups have begun leaning on GenAI for identifying trends in customer needs and creating new designs, while service groups are focused on forecasting trends and integrating technology into customer-facing applications, such as chatbots.

Security teams are also looking at how these activities can be incorporated into their day-to-day operations, especially for writing code, looking for reference information related to specific threat indicators and issues, and automating investigative tasks.

In addition, respondents cite increased speed for completing tasks (71%) and automated routine tasks (56%) as the top two ways their organizations hope to use generative AI. Both are areas that could make a huge different for the overworked and under-resourced security analyst, as well.

GenAI adoption within the enterprise is expected to be widespread, as many different departments see ways to benefit from the technology. That means security teams will be relying on GenAI to improve their operations and shield the rest of their organizations from potential problems, such as data leakage; potential privacy, copyright, and compliance violations; and security issues tied to malicious and poisoned AI tools.

Learn how Dark Reading readers anticipate using generative AI in the enterprise.