Cato Networks finds gaps in AI oversight in global survey

Cato Networks released results from a global survey of more than 600 IT leaders that found gaps in oversight of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption, reporting that 69 percent of respondents lacked a formal system to track AI usage and that monitoring and governance of shadow AI were insufficient.

The survey found 61 percent of respondents had detected unauthorized AI tools in their environments, while only 26 percent reported having solutions to monitor AI usage. Nearly half of those surveyed either Decentralized Identity (DID) not track AI use at all or addressed it only on a reactive basis, and 71 percent identified productivity and efficiency as the primary use case for AI.

Respondents evaluated their defenses and risk management: 13 percent judged their management of shadow AI risks as “highly effective,” and 9 percent said their defenses against AI-generated cyber threats were “highly effective.” Fifty-three percent were highly or extremely concerned about AI security risks.

Cato Networks described its cloud platform as delivering enterprise security and networking in a single offering and said it relied on an open, modular Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture built on Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), a purpose-built global cloud network, and an embedded cloud-native security stack.

“It is not a question of whether there is shadow AI usage within an enterprise, but whether you have the ability to detect it, govern it, and secure it before an issue arises,” said Etay Maor. “Our research shows that most enterprises need to take rapid action to gain visibility and control of their AI usage.” said Etay Maor.

Cato Networks said organizations needed to gain visibility and control of their AI usage.