35% of businesses have no regulations for AI chatbots in the workplace, according to new research from US-based Tech.co.

The findings from the firm’s Impact of Technology on the Workplace Report highlights a particularly relaxed attitude towards the disruptive technology.

Tech.co, the US tech news and and research outlet surveyed 1,036 business leaders, exploring how business security might be impacted by emerging technologies.

The greatest risk that generative AI poses to companies, according to the survey, is the potential for the exposure of proprietary data.

If employees enter company or client data into a chatbot, they may be exposing identifiable information to the company that own the bot.

Despite the noted understanding of this risk, only 27% of businesses have implemented policies that strictly limit the kind of data that can be shared with AI models.

Worse still, is that policies that are introduced may not be up to best practice, as a third (32%) are simply reviewing and approving AI tools before usage, and 21% are just banning certain job roles from using AI.

Another 11% are just banning AI usage outright, which could risk their company falling behind with the times.

While this may be the safest option when it comes to risk, it also removes any possible benefits of utilising generative AI tools, especially as Tech.co’s report revealed that 61% of business leaders say AI has improved their work-life balance.

However, AI appears to be proliferating, as the proportion of businesses using AI has jumped significantly year-on-year, from 66% to a whopping 85%.

The more popular AI use continues to become amongst employees, the greater the need to regulate its usage. The safety of company data should remain a priority across all businesses.

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“The results from our latest Tech.co research has proved rather alarming, and shows that many businesses are unaware of the dangers of using AI unchecked,” editor of Tech.co, Jack Turner, said.

“These pitfalls could be minimal, from creating some embarrassing AI-generated copy, right up to opening themselves up to cyber-attacks.

“With the vast majority of businesses now using AI in some capacity (85%), companies need to educate themselves, and their employees, on the perils of using such a powerful tool without enforced guidelines.”