When Coca-Cola released its latest holiday advertisement—an AI-driven reimagining of its iconic 1980s campaign—it not only showcased the creative potential of generative AI but also underscored a broader truth: AI is no longer confined to niche teams. It’s central to how organisations operate across sectors.

In 2024, AI cemented its role in the modern enterprise. Recent research revealed that 30% of companies in India are adopting AI to maximise efforts, surpassing the 26% global average. In 2025, this trend is set to accelerate, embedding AI deeper into business processes from marketing to software development. However, while companies race to harness AI’s potential, many neglect to properly secure it.

The Wild West of AI Adoption

AI adoption in the corporate world resembles the Wild West: full of promise but often unchecked and chaotic. As businesses rush to leverage AI’s transformative capabilities, security frequently takes a backseat, creating significant risks.

What is ‘Shadow AI’?

One immediate danger is shadow AI—applications or services implemented without formal IT oversight. Shadow AI often arises from well-meaning teams aiming to improve productivity but bypassing traditional governance processes. These unmonitored tools may inadvertently expose sensitive data, introduce vulnerabilities, or create compliance risks. For instance, AI models that generate customer insights might store data in unsecured environments, leaving it open to unauthorised access or theft.

Meanwhile, threat actors are exploiting this chaos. Hackers leverage AI to craft convincing phishing attacks, bypass security protocols, and exploit misconfigured cloud environments. While businesses celebrate AI’s efficiency, adversaries use it to their advantage by scaling their operations and amplifying their impact. The gap between innovation and security is glaring, and the consequences are becoming harder to ignore.

What is AI Security Posture Management?

Addressing AI’s security challenges requires a shift in organisations’ protection approaches. Traditional cybersecurity frameworks, while essential, are not designed to handle the unique vulnerabilities of AI systems. This is where AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM) comes into play.

AI-SPM is a specialised framework that provides visibility, governance, and protection for AI applications, models, and infrastructure. Unlike conventional security measures, AI-SPM focuses on the distinct risks AI pipelines pose.

Firstly, AI-SPM enables shadow AI discovery by identifying all AI applications—including unauthorised ones—running within an organisation. This ensures that no service operates outside IT’s purview, whether on Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, AWS’s SageMaker, or Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI. Secondly, it offers misconfiguration detection. Misconfigured AI services can inadvertently expose sensitive data or create backdoors for attackers. AI-SPM identifies these vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. Additionally, AI-SPM provides attack path visualisation, mapping out how adversaries might exploit AI workloads. This gives security teams actionable insights into potential attack vectors.

Finally, with compliance management, AI-SPM helps organisations align their AI deployments with evolving compliance standards, such as the EU AI Act, ensuring that they meet regulatory requirements.

By integrating AI-SPM into their broader security strategy, organisations can balance innovation and protection, harnessing AI’s productivity benefits while safeguarding their data and infrastructure from emerging threats.

Securing the Future: Lessons and Strategies for 2025 and Beyond

The rapid adoption of AI in 2024 demonstrated both its potential and its perils. In India, a burgeoning tech landscape and a strong emphasis on digital transformation have propelled AI integration across industries. Indian companies are not only adopting AI at a faster rate but are also at the forefront of innovating AI applications that cater to local and global markets.

However, the same traits that make AI attractive—its speed, scalability, and adaptability—are also its greatest weaknesses. As mentioned earlier, we know AI is being used right now to generate convincing, context-aware phishing emails tailored to specific targets, catching even the most vigilant employees off guard. The lesson is clear: AI adoption without robust security measures is a recipe for disaster. Organisations must be equally proactive in their defence strategies as adversaries become more sophisticated.

To prepare for the next wave of AI adoption, organisations should adopt AI-SPM tools. Investing in AI security posture management solutions is critical, as these tools provide visibility into shadow AI, detect vulnerabilities, and offer insights into attack paths.

Secondly, organisations need to prioritise employee training. Employees are often the weakest link in an organisation’s security chain. Comprehensive training programmes can help staff recognise and respond to AI-driven threats.

Moreover, it’s essential to integrate AI security into operations. AI can be a powerful ally in cybersecurity. Leveraging AI for defence—from threat detection to automated incident response—can help organisations stay ahead of adversaries.

Finally, companies should align with regulatory standards. As compliance requirements evolve, organisations must ensure their AI deployments meet or exceed regulatory expectations.

It’s Time to Act

The train has left the station: AI is here to stay, and its adoption is only accelerating. For businesses, the challenge is clear. To thrive in 2025 and beyond, they must embrace AI’s potential while addressing its unique security challenges.

The Coca-Cola advertisement was more than just a clever marketing move—it was a wake-up call. AI is transforming industries, but without a solid foundation of security, that transformation could come at a steep cost.

Now is the time to focus on “Secure AI.” By prioritising AI security posture management, aligning with regulatory standards, and fostering a culture of vigilance, organisations can unlock AI’s full potential—securely.

Anand Prakash is senior director, product management, SentinelOne