Zscaler Finds Enterprise Use of AI/ML Tools Skyrocketed Nearly 600% Over the Last Year, Putting Enterprises at Risk

ThreatLabz AI Report Reveals Enterprises Sharing 569 TB of Data to AI Tools, Stressing the Need for Better Data Security

• Enterprise AI/ML transactions increased from 521 million monthly in April 2023 to 3.1 billion monthly by January 2024.
• Manufacturing generates the most AI traffic, totaling 21% of all AI transactions in the Zscaler security cloud, followed by Finance and Insurance (20%) and Services (17%).
• The most popular AI/ML applications for enterprises by transaction volume are ChatGPT, Drift, OpenAI, Writer, and LivePerson.
• The top five countries generating the most enterprise AI transactions are the US, India, the UK, Australia, and Japan.

SAN JOSE, Calif., March 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS), the leader in cloud security, today announced the release of its 2024 AI Security Report, which draws on more than 18 billion AI transactions across the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange cloud security platform from April 2023 to January 2024. Zscaler ThreatLabz researchers analyzed how enterprises use AI/ML tools and mapped trends across sectors and geographies, highlighting how businesses are adapting to the shifting AI landscape and managing security around the use of AI tools. Today's enterprises must secure a transformation driven by generative AI (GenAI) bidirectionally: by securely adopting GenAI tools in the enterprise with Zero Trust while leveraging it to defend against the new AI-driven threat landscape. 

AI has already become a part of business as usual, as enterprises leverage and integrate new features and tools into their day-to-day workflows, multiplying the volume of transactions and data generated. The much higher volume is reflected in the nearly 600% increase in transactions as well as the 569 terabytes of enterprise data sent to AI tools that ThreatLabz analyzed between September 2023 and January 2024.

“Data is the lifeblood of every enterprise and the gold of this new era in the AI revolution,” said Deepen Desai, Chief Security Officer, Zscaler. “With the visibility provided by the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange’s nearly 500 trillion daily signals combined with Avalor* Data Fabric, we believe Zscaler is uniquely positioned to fight AI with AI and improve Zero Trust security across the enterprise.”

AI transactions grow exponentially

From April 2023 to January 2024, ThreatLabz saw AI/ML transactions grow by nearly 600%, rising to more than 3 billion monthly across the Zero Trust Exchange platform in January. Despite the mounting security risk and increasing number of data protection incidents, enterprises are adopting AI tools in large numbers.