PHL enterprises facing pressure to deploy AI despite risks, says study

MANY Philippine enterprises are facing pressure to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to keep pace with rapid global adoption without considering potential security and compliance risks, AI security company TrendAI said in a new study.

The study showed that 67% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) and 72% of business decision-makers (BDMs) in the Philippines said they have felt pressured to approve AI despite security concerns, with some ignoring these due to the threat of competition and rising internal demand.

This is even as these organizations said they are employing various strategies to maintain data integrity in AI systems in both data security (76%) and data quality management (72%).

“Organizations are not lacking awareness of risk; they’re lacking the conditions to manage it. When deployment is driven by competitive pressure rather than governance maturity, you create a situation where AI is embedded into critical systems without the controls needed to manage it safely. This research reinforces our focus on helping organizations drive solid business outcomes with AI while still managing business risk,” said Rachel Jin, TrendAI chief platform and business officer.

The lack of controls and governance can lead to vulnerability points that cybercriminals can take advantage of as attackers are already using AI to automate reconnaissance, accelerate phishing campaigns, and lower the barrier to entry for cybercrime, the company said.

Globally, just 33% of ITDMs and 44% of BDMs said they feel highly prepared for the pace of AI adoption, the study showed.

“The development of AI policy and governance frameworks is part of organizations’ preparation, with over half of ITDMs and BDMs (56% and 58%, respectively) saying comprehensive policies are already in place. However, a third of the organizations are still drafting their AI governance frameworks, with top barriers being unclear regulation or compliance standards (53%), as well as limited security or data expertise (51%),” it said.

“Organizations are deploying AI faster than they can manage the associated risks, creating a widening gap between ambition and oversight.”

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Meanwhile, 60% of respondents said they believe autonomous systems like agentic AI will significantly improve cyber defense in the short term, although they remain concerned over data access, misuse, and lack of oversight. The study also showed that 30% said they lack observability or auditability over these systems.

“More than five in ten organizations (57%) say AI agents accessing sensitive data is their biggest risk. More than half warn that malicious prompts (53%) and abuse of trusted AI status (51%) could compromise security. Meanwhile, 36% point to a growing attack surface for cybercriminals, and 34% cite risks linked to autonomous code deployment.”

In the Philippines, 65% of respondents said they support the introduction of AI “kill switch” mechanisms to shut down systems in the event of failure or misuse, while 33% said they remain unsure.

“This lack of consensus highlights a deeper issue: organizations are moving towards autonomous AI without agreement on how to retain control when it matters most,” TrendAI said.

“Agentic AI is moving organizations into a new risk category,” Ms. Jin said. “Our research shows the concerns are already clear, from sensitive data exposure to loss of oversight. Without visibility and control, organizations are deploying systems they don’t fully understand or govern, and that risk is only going to increase unless action is taken.”

TrendAI’s study covered 3,700 ITDMs and BDMs globally, including 200 from the Philippines. — Bettina V. Roc