More than three-quarters of organizations responding to a survey on AI-related security risks say they have experienced incidents or have identified vulnerabilities, making it clear that they still haven’t established ways to manage AI effectively.

According to the research from DigiCert, the findings bring clarity to the reality that organizations  face challenges in their adoption of artificial intelligence. According to DigiCert’s report, governance, visibility and accountability are lacking in the organizations racing to implement AI. It noted that almost half the respondents did not have centralized visibility into their AI systems and activities; this, despite the fact that 75% of those organizations are deploying four or more AI-driven systems in the past six months.

“The question is no longer whether organizations should adopt AI. It’s whether they can explain, govern and trust the AI they’ve already deployed,” said Brian Trzupek, Senior Vice President at DigiCert, in the report. “Those capabilities will increasingly determine which organizations can safely scale AI and which struggle with the risks it creates.”

Among the key findings is that 90% of organizations are discussing AI governance at the C-level, but only half have developed programs for it. Also noteworthy is that 57% have created budgets for security AI systems. And, nearly half of the respondents have assigned unique digital identities to all agents within their systems. This, the report said, “reflects growing recognition that AI systems require the same level of oversight and accountability as other critical enterprise assets.”

From the research, additional findings include:

• Nearly 90% of organizations have evaluated AI related liability exposure as they prepare for increasing regulatory and compliance requirements.
• 86% have established formal or informal processes to revoke access or trust when AI systems are compromised.
• Four in ten organizations have assigned unique digital identities to at least some AI agents, highlighting the growing focus on managing non-human actors.
• 47% cannot fully trace AI decisions back to the models and source data that produced them, limiting their ability to understand how AI systems arrive at decisions and outcomes.

To access the DigiCert AI Trust Outlook, click here.