According to the research, 22 percent of organisations provide AI training to all staff. In contrast, almost one third of organisations provide no AI training at all, while 35 percent restrict training to IT-related roles. Most digital trust professionals view this skills gap as pressing, with 89 percent saying they will need AI training within the next two years to retain or advance their careers, and 45 percent indicating it will be required within six months.

Jamie Norton, Board Director at ISACA, highlighted that the integration of AI tools at work is outpacing the development of organisational oversight and policy. He pointed to growing risks from sophisticated threats, such as deepfakes, that organisations are not sufficiently prepared to counter.

The survey found that while AI is delivering tangible benefits—68 percent report time savings and 56 percent expect a positive impact on their career in the next year—organisations lag in implementing comprehensive frameworks. Only 28 percent have a formal AI policy, although this figure is up from 15 percent last year. Similarly, 59 percent permit the use of generative AI, up from 42 percent in the previous year.

Respondents are employing AI for a variety of functions: 52 percent to create written content, 51 percent to boost productivity, 40 percent to automate repetitive tasks, 38 percent for analysing large data volumes, and 33 percent in customer service roles.

Despite these applications, understanding of AI remains limited. Over half (56 percent) consider themselves somewhat familiar with the technology, 28 percent very familiar, and only 6 percent extremely familiar.

Concerns about the risks associated with AI are significant. Sixty-one percent report being very or extremely concerned about generative AI being exploited by malicious actors. Fifty-nine percent believe AI-powered phishing and social engineering attacks have become harder to detect, and 66 percent expect deepfake attacks to become more sophisticated within the next year. Despite these risks, only 21 percent of organisations are investing in detection or mitigation tools for deepfakes.

Questions also remain around organisations’ ability to manage the ethical aspects of AI. Forty-one percent think ethical issues such as privacy, bias, and accountability are being addressed adequately, while just 30 percent express high confidence in their organisations’ ability to detect AI-related misinformation.

For many organisations, AI risks are still not a top-level priority. Only 42 percent view them as an immediate concern. The top cited risks include misinformation or disinformation (80 percent), privacy violations (69 percent), social engineering (63 percent), loss of intellectual property (53 percent), and job displacement (40 percent).

Jason Lau, ISACA Board Director and Chief Information Security Officer at Crypto.com, commented on the need for continuous learning and updated AI policies.