Tech leaders unprepared for AI, regulation needed: NashTech report
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — NashTech’s 25th annual Digital Leadership Report reveals a gap in technology leaders’ preparedness for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).
The survey of over 50,000 CIOs, CTOs, and tech executives globally found that only 15% feel ready to tackle the challenges posed by AI systems like ChatGPT.
Despite recognizing AI’s potential benefits, 88% are calling for stricter regulation of the technology.
“With the recent mass adoption of generative AI, the opportunities and challenges for [organizations] is potentially vast,” said Bev White, CEO of NashTech’s parent company Nash Squared.
“It could be the trigger that prompts an avalanche of AI investment – similar to the mass adoption of cloud over the last ten years. This just makes the regulation and governance of AI more important than ever.”
Large-scale enterprise AI adoption remains limited, with just 10% having extensive deployments — a figure static for five years. Around half, or 49%, are piloting or implementing AI in a limited scope, while a third are merely exploring generative AI capabilities.
Alarmingly, only 21% of organizations have established AI governance policies, and 36% have no plans to create such guidelines soon.
Data privacy violations and AI-driven cyberattacks are major worries, though 70% believe the benefits outweigh the risks.
On average, leaders anticipate 17% job losses due to automation.
“Establishing clear guardrails, guidelines and ethical safety nets around AI is simply essential. Otherwise, what could be one of the truly transformational enablers of the modern age could instead become one of its biggest, risk-laden destabilisers,” added White.
The report also sheds light on technology investment trends, noting a return to pre-pandemic levels of IT budgeting, with 45% of tech leaders expecting budget increases.
However, investments in emerging technologies like AI, quantum computing, and the metaverse are mostly confined to pilot projects.
The findings also discuss the impact of in-office mandates on hiring, particularly among women in tech roles. “For companies without mandated in-office days, 28% of the tech team hired recently is female. This number drops to 22% at companies with a mandated 5 days in the office,” the report said.
The results also revealed that despite some improvement over the last year, a shortage of key tech skills remains, especially in the cybersecurity sector.
