Governance and security are top priorities for data teams

With ever more organizations rushing to adopt AI solutions, a new report suggests that implementing stronger data governance and security controls will be a higher priority for data teams as we head into 2024.

The report from data security company Immuta finds that only half of respondents say their organization's data security strategy is keeping up with AI's rate of evolution.

In the next 12 months, 80 percent of respondents say their top priorities are data security related initiatives -- such as implementing stronger data governance and security controls, and modernizing data architectures with new concepts like data mesh -- while only 20 percent say integrating AI into business processes will be a top priority.

"With the rapid onset of AI solutions and ongoing push to migrate data to the cloud, data leaders are now grappling with how to prioritize data security, agility, and visibility. They need solutions that provide both proper data protection and the flexibility to use data to drive value," says Matt Carroll, CEO of Immuta. "Without the foundation of a strong data architecture and data security strategy in place, it will be impossible for organizations to safely integrate AI into their processes. Business leaders must design AI-specific security strategies that include the right protocols and policies to protect data."

While many data professionals are confident AI will help them become better at things like anomaly detection (44 percent) and phishing attack identification (46 percent), there are concerns about the broader security impact. 56 percent cite the exposure of sensitive data via an AI prompt as their greatest area of concern.

Data access remains an issue too, 63 percent of data professionals lack visibility into data access controls, while 33 percent of respondents cite a lack of visibility into data sharing and usage as their biggest security challenge. At the same time, 56 percent note that data security processes slow down access to data, meaning that over half of organizations are sacrificing some level of data-driven value for essential security outcomes.

The full report is available from the Immuta site.

Image credit: nialowwa/depositphotos.com