Executives warn AI adoption outpaces governance & ROI

Executives from Quorum Cyber, Eightfold AI and Pax8 have issued warnings and advice on how artificial intelligence is affecting work and business ahead of AI Appreciation Day.

They pointed to growing adoption of AI tools and raised concerns about governance, skills and return on investment.

AI Appreciation Day has become a focal point for business leaders calling for closer scrutiny of how organisations implement and manage AI, rather than simply promoting new tools. The technology now influences decisions across sales, marketing, operations and human resources at many companies.

Kevin Hanes, the new Chief Executive Officer of cybersecurity firm Quorum Cyber, warned of a widening gap between how quickly staff adopt AI and how prepared security and IT teams are to manage the risks.

"In honor of AI Appreciation Day, it's important to understand how AI, especially agentic AI, is already changing how organizations operate, how decisions get made, and how work gets done, while also considering what needs to be done to improve trust in AI. Employees and business units aren't going to wait for IT or security departments to approve new AI capabilities. Sales, marketing, operations, and countless other teams are already finding ways to use these capabilities because they drive productivity and competitive advantage. However, letting AI, especially agentic AI, loose on company data can have unintended consequences. Organisations that adopt AI must do so with visibility, control, and an understanding of the risks involved. You can't put effective guardrails around technology you don't understand, and you can't secure AI that has trusted access to your systems, data, and business processes without first knowing what it can access and influence. Organisations need to be proactive. Trust in AI starts with secure foundations, clear governance, and visibility into how these technologies interact with critical business assets. If companies don't have the right skills in house, they can find a partner to help them safely onboard new AI tools that increase productivity and competitive advantage," said Kevin Hanes, Chief Executive Officer, Quorum Cyber.

Enterprise security teams are under pressure as more advanced systems, such as agentic AI, act autonomously across corporate networks and data. Hanes said organisations without in-house expertise should consider external support.

From a workforce perspective, Ashutosh Garg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of talent intelligence firm Eightfold AI, pointed to a gap between early productivity gains and deeper structural change in how work is organised.

"AI Appreciation Day should be a reminder that adoption matters more than admiration. According to Gallup, 65% of employees in organizations that have implemented AI say it has improved their productivity and efficiency, yet only 12% strongly agree that AI has fundamentally changed how work gets done in their organization. That gap is the real story. AI is no longer just a headline; it is becoming part of how work gets done. The next challenge is not simply deploying AI, but redesigning work around it. As intelligence becomes more accessible, the differentiators become judgment, trust, context, and the responsibility to apply AI well. AI Appreciation Day should remind us that AI is powerful. More importantly, it should remind us that the real work is helping people and AI operate better together. In a world where intelligence is becoming abundant, advantage will not come from access to AI alone. It will come from knowing where to trust it, where to challenge it, and where human judgment matters most," said Ashutosh Garg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Eightfold AI.

Garg cited Gallup survey data showing that while a majority of employees see productivity benefits from AI, few report a fundamental change in work design. He said leaders need to focus on judgment and trust as AI becomes more embedded.

While larger enterprises refine their AI strategies, small and medium-sized businesses face a different set of hurdles. Pax8, a cloud marketplace that works with managed service providers and smaller firms, pointed to an "AI applicability barrier" that limits practical deployment.

"Whether people fully appreciate AI depends on whether businesses can clearly see how AI works for their company. Unfortunately, there is an AI applicability barrier when it comes to SMBs. The AI tooling landscape is complex and ever-evolving. It's particularly difficult for SMBs without a dedicated team setting strategy and developing managed intelligence at scale to know what's right for their business. At the same time, many companies on an AI journey have invested in new tools or relied on AI extensions within their current technology stack, but are struggling to translate those early benefits into commercial impact. SMBs are already seeing value from AI through time savings, automation and more efficient ways of working. But as adoption matures, they're increasingly moving beyond the question of whether AI works and focusing on how to measure its value, integrate it into existing systems and create more meaningful business outcomes. As businesses enter the token economy, they'll rightly ask hard questions about the real cost effectiveness of AI and whether it's being applied in valuable areas once they factor in the expertise needed across governance, compliance and security. To break the applicability gap, SMBs need to see businesses just like theirs achieving measurable ROI," said Andy Readman, AI Platform Lead, Pax8.

Readman said many smaller firms are moving from automation experiments towards closer scrutiny of cost, governance and security as usage and token-based spending increase.