Tech leaders are pushing ahead with their plans for autonomous AI, but formal governance and oversight are falling behind, leaving many at risk of material data breach, according to new research from EY.

Surveying 500 business leaders across the tech sector, the latest Technology Pulse Poll found that almost all tech executives (97%) are prioritising the pursuit of autonomous AI for their organisation’s long-term competitive strategy, with 85% agreeing that speed-to-market is more important than exhaustive AI vetting.

The figures suggest this fear of falling behind has led to firms sacrificing basic safety principles. EY found that over half of department-level AI initiatives (52%) are operating without formal approval or oversight, while 78% of leaders said AI adoption is outpacing their organisation’s ability to manage the risks associated with these projects.

Just half of firms said that their AI governance or ethics leaders have independent authority to halt high-priority or revenue-generating AI projects that fail safety and ethical guardrails, which, while encouraging, creates the potential for bottlenecks and blind spots. 

Oversight gaps are already creating real-world consequences, with 45% of technology executives reporting a confirmed or suspected data leak in the last year due to employees using unauthorised third-party genAI tools, while 39% reported a confirmed or suspected proprietary IP leak for the same reason.

“While leaders see it as essential to long-term competitiveness, many acknowledge that AI adoption is outpacing oversight and that a significant share of AI initiatives lack robust governance,” said James Brundage, EY Global and Americas technology sector leader. 

“Without strong governance in place, companies risk hitting a plateau where large-scale transformational growth and innovation across the enterprise become increasingly difficult. That’s the velocity paradox leaders are navigating today, balancing urgency with accountability.”

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Despite the risks, tech leaders are rushing to expand their investment in AI. According to the survey, 95% of executives say AI spending at their company will increase in the next year, up from 92% in last year’s survey. 

However, as AI adoption ramps up, security vulnerabilities increase exponentially. As such, 79% of leaders plan to increase their investments in cybersecurity, followed by cloud computing (67%), AI-specific talent (65%), compute and infrastructure (62%) and back-office functions such as IT, finance and HR (56%).

There are fears, however, that these ambitions will soon run into macroeconomic roadblocks, with 62% of tech execs concerned that escalating geopolitical tensions or sovereign AI mandates will hinder their organisation’s ability to scale AI initiatives.

In a recent poll of CEOs, EY found that the majority of business leaders (79%) believed that attracting and retaining critical talent to build high-functioning teams was key to navigating external macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures in support of AI transformation.