Asian employees are using GenAI without policy prep

One of the uses of Generative AI (GenAI) has been in business organizations. Many Asian businesses are rushing to adopt the revolutionary technology. As per a recent IDC report, by 2026, approx. 50% of the SMBs in the Asia-Pacific region will deploy GenAI applications to change marketing and sales processes.

However, it’s important that business organizations do so in a regulated manner.

According to the Generative AI 2023: An ISACA Pulse Poll, there is a high degree of uncertainty around GenAI, few company policies around its use, lack of training, and fears around its exploitation by bad actors.

The poll identified that several employees at respondents’ organizations are making use of GenAI, even though policies for its usage aren’t in place. Among respondents in Asia, only 32% of organizations state their companies expressly allow the usage of GenAI, only 11% say a formal comprehensive policy exists, and 30% say there’s no policy and plan for one. Still, more than 42% say employees are using it anyway, and the percentage is likely much higher given that an additional 30% aren’t sure.

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These employees based in Asia are using GenAI in several ways, which includes creating written content (67%), increasing productivity (41%), customer service such as chat bots (30%), automate repetitive tasks (28%), and improve decision making (23%).

Yet, only 5% of respondents’ organizations are providing training to all staff on AI, and more than half (52%) say that no AI training at all is provided, even to teams directly impacted by AI. Only 23% of respondents indicated they are highly familiar with GenAI.

Employees are not waiting for permission to explore and leverage generative AI to bring value to their work, and it is clear that their organizations need to catch up in providing policies, guidance and training to ensure the technology is used appropriately and ethically

Jason Lau, ISACA board director and CISO at Crypto.com

“Employees are not waiting for permission to explore and leverage generative AI to bring value to their work, and it is clear that their organizations need to catch up in providing policies, guidance and training to ensure the technology is used appropriately and ethically,” said Jason Lau, ISACA board director and CISO at Crypto.com.

“With greater alignment between employers and their staff around generative AI, organizations will be able to drive increased understanding of the technology among their teams, gain further benefit from AI, and better protect themselves from related risk.”

Risk & Exploitation Concerns

The poll explored the ethical concerns and risks associated with AI as well, with 29% saying that not enough attention is being paid to ethical standards for AI implementation. 25% of their organizations consider managing AI risk to be an immediate priority, 31% say it is a longer-term priority, and 29% say their organization does not have plans to consider AI risk at the moment, even though respondents note the following as top three risks of the technology, misinformation/disinformation (65%), privacy violations (64%), and social engineering (48%).

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Almost half (45%) of respondents indicated they are very or extremely worried about generative AI being exploited by bad actors. 65% say that adversaries are using AI as successfully as or more successfully than digital trust professionals.

As quickly as AI has evolved, so have the ways that the technology can be misused, misinterpreted or abused, and professionals need to have the knowledge and skills to guide their organizations toward safe, ethical and responsible AI use

RV Raghu, ISACA India Ambassador and director, Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd

“AI training and education is imperative for digital trust professionals, not only to be able to understand and successfully leverage the technology, but to also be fully aware of the risks involved,” says RV Raghu, ISACA India Ambassador and director, Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd.

“As quickly as AI has evolved, so have the ways that the technology can be misused, misinterpreted or abused, and professionals need to have the knowledge and skills to guide their organizations toward safe, ethical and responsible AI use.”  

Organizations Lack AI policies & Offer No AI Training

ISACA also found that of 3,270 digital trust professionals, those who work in fields such as information security, governance, risk and privacy, only 15% of organizations have AI policies, and 40% of organizations offer no AI training at all. These gaps are concerning given that 70% of respondents say staff are using AI, and 60% say employees are using generative AI (e.g., Microsoft CoPilot, Google Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT).

“AI is moving at a speed we haven’t seen before, with its use in organizations outpacing the policies, training and skills that are absolutely critical for making sure it is used securely,” said Shannon Donahue, ISACA Chief Content and Publishing Officer.

“While there are many unknowns when it comes to AI’s trajectory, one thing is clear—digital trust professionals must prioritize AI education and training to harness the technology’s value, enhance their own skillset, and evolve and advance their careers with the changing times,” says RV Raghu, Director at Versatilist Consulting India Pvt Ltd, and ISACA India Ambassador. 

The poll does show the most common uses of AI are increasing productivity (35%), automating repetitive tasks (33%), and creating written content (33%). A full 60% of respondents are worried or very worried that bad actors will exploit generative AI, with 81% saying the top AI risk is misinformation/disinformation. Yet only 35% say AI risks are an immediate priority for their organization.