In a Workiva survey of over 2,300 finance, sustainability, audit and risk professionals, 74% said they are using AI regularly in their day-to-day work, and 88% reported a notable increase in return on investment from AI use over the past year.
While AI adoption is surging, Workiva found "most companies lack the foundational infrastructure to scale it safely and effectively." Indeed, two out of three companies lacked key AI building blocks: high-quality data for the systems to use; AI governance and security policies for employees; and role-specific training on how to use AI tools.
"A lack of data accuracy, governance and security policies exposes organizations to uncontrolled risk," the report noted. "If the data points fueling AI are inaccurate or open to unwanted manipulation, the increased efficiency from using AI will only accelerate the path toward costly errors, flawed decisions, and potential reputational damage."
The survey also found practitioners are twice as likely as executives to say they are not confident in their company’s ability to use AI to "drive measurable impact."