When revealed data brings AI rollouts to a screeching halt - and how to manage it

Agentic and generative AI can improve productivity by helping professionals find information quickly and access data that has been stored in systems such as SharePoint and network-attached storage. Enterprise AI rollouts have sometimes been halted when executives reassessed what information could be exposed internally. The problems were not attributed to AI itself, but to how organizations manage and govern their data. One organization described data that had been long tucked away suddenly surfacing through AI prompts, increasing the need for controls. Another described difficulty determining data ownership across a global network of independent affiliates, since search and AI surfaced content in places users accessed.

"Agentic and generative AI have opened up information and insights to professionals in enterprises. However, evidence suggests that trend could be too much of a good thing. At a recent conference, veterans of enterprise AI rollouts issued cautionary words to professionals considering diving headfirst into AI."

"The issues these professionals encountered even led to temporary halts in AI rollouts meant to boost employee productivity, as executives reassessed information that could be exposed internally. At the same time, the executives, who spoke on a panel at the recent Veeam conference in New York City, emphasized that AI wasn't the source of the challenge."

"Steve MacIntyre, senior vice president at Fidelity Investments, described how his 400,000-employee company saw data long tucked away in the recesses of its organization -- on SharePoint sites or in network-attached storage, for example -- suddenly surface via AI prompts. "It wasn't an AI problem," he said. "It was the productivity and the ability of AI to find things quickly.""

"Wim Geurden, chief architect for enterprise tech at EY, described his company's challenge as pinning down data ownership across its global network of independent affiliates -- data that was also surfacing through its AI engine. "When big enterprise search was launched, all kinds of stuff started to surface in places that people went," he said. "EY Global doesn't own any of the data. Every member firm owns its data. That is where the first questions were raised.""

Read at ZDNET