IT STRATEGY

Scott Laliberte

Executives are climbing aboard the AI roller coaster, even if they’re a little concerned about the ride.

A recent survey from global consultancy Protiviti revealed that the C-suite remains concerned about AI-related risks, even as execs continue to focus on onboarding their workforces with the technology.

The survey of 1,330 board members and executives, released on October 8, saw “new risks from implementing AI” rise to the second-biggest concern for the group, falling below only cybersecurity. (The AI risk has been rising steadily in the annual report, moving from tenth position two years ago, to sixth last year.)

Any fear of AI consequences, however, hasn’t slowed execs’ push to “better equip the workforce to realize AI’s value proposition,” which the survey pegs as the number-one priority related to AI deployment (cited by 44% of respondents).

New implementation risks, including costs.—BH

      

Sponsored By JumpCloud

AI agents are getting more freedom to act, and IT teams are playing catch-up.

According to research from JumpCloud, 46% of organizations using AI agents allow high-risk actions to happen automatically, with human review afterward.¹

IT teams need to think beyond which tools employees can use. Three things worth settling (before an agent settles them for you):

• Define what each agent is permitted to do, which resources it can access, and which actions require human authorization.
• Set controls for high-risk activities before an agent executes them.
• Give AI agents distinct identities and defined permissions—it makes it easier to establish ownership, apply access policies, and understand their activity.

JumpCloud's agentic IAM capabilities help teams bring identity, access, and governance to the growing AI workforce.

See how JumpCloud secures AI agents.

IT STRATEGY

Illustration: Brittany Holloway-Brown, Photos: Adobe Stock

Very few CIOs are enjoying the fruit of their AI labor, according to new research from Gartner.

The analyst firm’s survey, which queried 2,002 tech leaders between May and July, found that 13% of CIOs say they have achieved “significant or transformational value” from AI.

Volume vs. value. The findings, which were unveiled on Monday at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2026, come just as AI use cases are surging within organizations. Gartner VP Analyst Alicia Mullery told IT Brew the average number of AI use cases increased by 400% between 2024 and 2025, but cautioned that organizations achieving “volume” is not the same as gaining value from AI.

“When I talk to a lot of leaders, they tell me that their executive teams are experiencing FOMO, fear of missing out,” Mullery said. “Every leader is like, ‘Oh my God, I got to be doing something. We’re doing AI…’ And that volume doesn’t necessarily equal value.”

What high achievers have in common.—BM

      

CYBERSECURITY

Francis Scialabba

The good news about an AI vulnerability scanner: It’ll likely find undiscovered vulnerabilities in your tech stack.

The bad news: It might find so many vulnerabilities that your organization will need to make some hard decisions about which fixes to prioritize.

Prioritization is the key to utilizing machine learning for security, said Chris Goettl, Ivanti VP of product security. But it requires making a case to executives that they should utilize AI in threat detection; enterprises may hesitate on that front out of fear of exposing sensitive data to a third-party vendor’s AI.

“That makes it difficult for detection, so I think opening up that ecosystem for the AI agent to be one more way of getting that deeper level of validation has been a benefit to the vulnerability detection space,” Goettl said.

How to manage endless AI-discovered vulnerabilities.—EH

      

patch notes

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 140. That’s how many sensitive targets CrowdStrike says were compromised over 11 days by a threat group allegedly backed by China, using an automated, agentic pen testing framework. (CyberScoop)

Quote: “Cheaper models are good news, but they rarely lower the total bill. When something gets cheaper, people use it more. So, each task costs less, but overall spending goes up.”—Jeet Pattanaik, SAP API program manager and founder and CTO of Glokal AI, on issues of higher consumption and price navigation facing organizations using AI (TechTarget)

Read: Zombie software could put an organization’s safety at risk. (Dark Reading)

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