Two-thirds (66%) of enterprise IT directors believe the UK isn’t advancing its AI development quickly enough, falling behind global rivals in North America and Europe, according to a new study from Lanop Business and Tax Advisors.

Further, 31% of IT directors also admitted to accidently leaking confidential data by using AI tools such as ChatGPT, with a further 48% believing AI to be the biggest threat to their organisations data security.

The findings were revealed in a recent poll by Lanop Business and Tax Advisors, who commissioned independent polling agency Censuswide to survey 250 UK IT Directors at enterprise organisations to discover their data spending and strategy.

The rapid global development of AI has amplified concerns around the safe and ethical use of AI technologies, which was a central talking point at the recent AI Seoul Summit.

The Summit, held to encourage responsible use of AI, underscored the need for a balanced approach to AI development, promoting both advancements in innovation and secure use. 27 Nations commit to working together on severe AI risks while championing innovation and inclusivity.

Ahead of the summit, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced 16 leading international companies committing to voluntary international AI standards, established at Bletchley Park summit.

Despite concerns, 88% of business leaders reported to use AI to improve their organisations data management.

Responding to the findings, Roman Kucera, chief technology officer at Ataccama commented: “AI is becoming increasingly integral to business decision-making, but in order to get high-quality output, businesses must feed AI models with high-quality data.

“To ensure data outputs are accurate and trustworthy, it is essential for businesses to emphasise data quality within their data practices otherwise they may be at risk of losing revenue due to poor decisions informed by low-quality unstructured sets.”

“AI acts as an accelerator for data staff, automating tasks such as data cleansing and analysis which frees data scientists to focus on higher-value work, rather than spending hours creating usable data sets.

“It is therefore encouraging to see IT decision makers labelling data quality as a top priority when inputting into AI models, providing clean, high-quality data to feed AI-based intelligence tools which in turn provide organisations with more accurate insights to support better decision making.”

92% say data quality is a top priority for their organisations when inputting to AI models, with a further 75 per cent say AI is the main tool their organisation uses for data analysis.

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The findings revealed 41% saying they would avoid hiring a data analyst or data scientist because AI can do the same job.

Libero Raspa, Director of IT consultancy adesso UK said: “AI is a truly transformational technology that will make a huge effect on business operations and drive the UK economy. To ensure its safe and ethical deployment, it is essential to put in place appropriate legislation. However, policymakers must balance regulations with the need to foster innovation to advance tech progressions.

“With the support of industry, governments and consumers they can better understand the stages their actions impact innovation and be more aware of public interests while also encouraging technological and business advancements.”