Gartner surveyed 102 chief audit executives (CAEs) to evaluate the importance of assuring 35 different risks. The survey found that the rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has led to a surge in the demand for audit coverage of potential risks that may arise from the use of this technology.

The top six risks that require the most audit coverage are strategic change management, diversity, equity and inclusion, organisational culture, AI-enabled cyber threats, AI control failures, and unreliable outputs from AI models.

However, Gartner’s findings reveal that internal auditors lack confidence in their ability to provide effective oversight of AI risks. This is because both publicly available GenAI applications and in-house-built ones create new and heightened risks for data and information security, privacy, IP protection, and copyright infringement, as well as trust and reliability of outputs.

CEOs and CFOs rated AI as the technology that will most significantly impact their organisations in the next three years. Therefore, addressing these AI-related risks has become more critical than ever for companies to protect themselves from reputational harm or potential legal repercussions.

Gartner is an IT research firm and consultancy founded in 1979 by Gideon Gartner. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Conn., with additional offices worldwide. It is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol IT. Gartner uses data visualisation and analysis tools to help IT professionals make decisions on technology investments. Their mission is to help customers improve performance and create value using technology. Gartner’s analysts provide analysis to support those decisions, and their clients include large enterprises, government agencies, and educational institutions.