AI is becoming a major data management challenge for IT and business leaders, according to just published research.
Companies are largely allowing employee use of generative AI, but two-thirds (66 percent) are concerned about the data governance risks it may pose, including privacy, security, and the lack of data source transparency in vendor solutions, according to the research.
The “State of Unstructured Data Management” survey, commissioned by data management vendor Komprise, collected responses from 300 enterprise storage IT and business decision makers at companies with more than 1,000 staff in the US and the UK.
While only 10 percent of organizations did not allow employee use of generative AI, the majority feared unethical, biased or inaccurate outputs, and corporate data leakage into the vendor’s AI system.
To cope with the challenges, while also searching for a competitive edge from AI, the research found 40 percent of leaders are pursuing a multi-pronged approach for mitigating risks from unstructured data in AI, encompassing storage, data management and security tools, as well as using internal task forces to oversee AI use.
The top unstructured data management challenge for leaders is “moving data without disrupting users and applications” (47 percent), but it is closely followed by “preparing for AI and cloud services” (46 percent).
“Generative AI raises new questions about data governance and protection,” said Steve McDowell, principal analyst at NAND Research. “The research shows IT leaders are working hard to responsibly balance the protection of their enterprise’s data with the rapid rollout of generative AI solutions, but it’s a difficult challenge, requiring the adoption of intelligent tools.”
“IT leaders are shifting focus to leverage generative AI solutions, yet they want to do this with guardrails,” added Kumar Goswami, chief executive officer of Komprise. “Data governance for AI will require the right data management strategy, which includes visibility across data storage silos, transparency into data sources, high-performance data mobility and secure data access.”
