Organizations struggle to manage AI and SaaS use safely
A new report finds that while 73 percent of employees are encouraged to use AI 33 percent don’t always follow AI policies.
The study from 1Password, based on data from 5,200 desk-based knowledge workers across the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and Singapore, also finds 52 percent of employees have downloaded apps without IT approval.
“People will always avoid friction, creating their own solutions when support isn’t clear. Today that shows up in the complexity of SaaS and AI implementations,” says Dave Lewis, global advisory CISO at 1Password. “The issue isn’t the SaaS and AI tools enterprises use in their corporate environments; it’s our assumptions. Organizations are asking yesterday’s identity tools to govern a cloud-native, AI-accelerated workplace. That disconnect has caused the Access-Trust Gap. If organizations want resilience and speed, the industry must treat access as continuous, context-aware, and largely invisible, protecting every app, every tool, and every identity while letting employees get on with the work.”
Risky AI use is widespread as the report finds 22 percent of employees have shared company data with AI to write a report or presentation, 24 percent have shared customer call notes, and 19 percent have shared employee data, such as performance reviews. In addition 43 percent use AI apps to do work on personal devices, while 25 percent use unapproved AI apps at work.
Traditional tools like single sign-on (SSO) can no longer keep up with today’s fast-changing SaaS and AI environments either. This means employees are adopting new tools faster than IT can govern them, leading to unmonitored access, unmanaged apps, and offboarding security risks.
Employee use of unapproved software has compromised their ability to maintain adequate protections according to 49 percent of security and IT professionals. 74 percent say single sign-on (SSO) is not a complete solution for securing employee identities. 30 percent of apps are left outside SSO, and 34 percent of employees have accessed a prior employer’s account, data, or apps.
You can get the full report on the 1Password site.
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