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Diving briefs:
- Security, privacy and related trust issues are some of the biggest concerns of businesses regarding generative artificial intelligence, according to the report.
- Companies face challenging questions about the reliability and auditability of technology as they put pressure on AI to integrate into their workflows.
- Many companies allocate new slices of budgets to AI investments, such as agent AI, which uses autonomous systems to perform complex tasks.
Dive Insights:
Two reports – one released by KPMG on Thursday and one released Thales was released last month – Shows how generative AI is causing security concerns among business leaders.
As business leaders surveyed by KPMG plan to spend money on cyber and data security protections in AI models, they reported prioritization of security surveillance in generative AI budgeting decisions. 52% cited risk and compliance as budget priorities.
These spending decisions reflect growing concerns among business executives about AI security. In KPMG's new second quarter report, 69% of leaders cited concerns about AI data privacy. This is a significant increase from the 43% quoted in the fourth quarter of 2024. Regulatory concerns around AI also rose from 42% to 55%.
Andrew Lone, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told Cybersecurity Dive that corporate security spending is “a good sign not only about using AI and experimenting with it.”
Based on a survey of 3,200 IT and security experts from 20 countries and 15 industries, Thales' annual data threat report reflects similar trends. The top four risks associated with respondent generation AI were the rapid conversion of ecosystems (which created 69% of the list of respondents), data integrity issues (64%), trust (57%), and confidentiality (45%).
AI Security ranks high on the respondents' largest list of security-related expenses. One in 10 respondents said that was the biggest expense, with 13% ranked second and 7% ranked third. Overall, AI Security ranked second in the top security cost on Thales' organization's list.
Nick Reese, co-founder and COO of AI Company Frontier Foundry, said, “The fact that many companies suggest security in how AI systems are purchased and maintained ranked AI security first, despite many citing it as the top concern of AI.
“Lease told Cybersecurity Dive: [AI models] In a way to dispel those fears. ”
Thales also found that “73% of respondents said they were investing in AI-specific security tools with new or existing budgets.” Over two-thirds of respondents reported purchasing AI security tools from cloud vendors, three in five reported purchasing from security vendors, and about half reported purchasing from new vendors.
As Agent AI gained the spotlight in the business community, KPMG discovered that corporate leaders are “indicating levels of comfort” with technology.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, 63% of respondents told KPMG that they prioritized deploying AI agents from “trusted technology providers.” The company's second quarter report said that number fell to 55%. Similarly, 45% of respondents in the second quarter said they “do not allow AI agents access to sensitive data without human monitoring” from 52% in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents who said they were not yet completely comfortable handing over tasks to AI agents increased from 28% to 45%.
