Dive Brief:

• Nearly 3 in 5 executives believe generative AI is a potential game-changing technology, according to a Salesforce survey of 500 IT leaders released Monday. Just one-third of executives say the technology is overhyped. 
• With global attention on generative AI services, two-thirds of executives say they're prioritizing business use of the technology in the next 18 months. For one-third of leaders, generative AI is a top priority.
• Despite interest, privacy concerns remain. Seven in 10 executives believe enterprise use of generative AI means exposing company data to new security risks. A skills gap and integration with the existing tech stack are among other top implementation concerns.

Dive Insight:

Potential implementation of generative AI is a mid- to long-term question for most businesses. But given potential interaction between these platforms and company data, it's important to think about a framework for employee use.

"Companies should — at a minimum — implement a basic usage policy that is in line with corporate data privacy, security requirements and ethical guidelines," a report from consulting company Omdia states. "Such a policy would help mitigate potential risks stemming from the use of these consumer-based [generative AI] services leveraging models such as ChatGPT."

Aside from risks related to data exposure, executives are mindful of the present-day capabilities of generative AI systems.

Nearly 3 in 5 executives believe generative AI yields inaccurate outputs, and a similar proportion say bias can skew outputs, generating misinformation or hate speech.

Despite risks, large businesses have begun experimenting with generative AI use cases, particularly in the marketing space. Brands such as Coca-Cola and Snapple have turned to ChatGPT to support marketing efforts.

Gartner expects the trend will continue. By 2025, the analyst firm projects generative AI will create 30% of marketing content, with human-augmentation, up from less than 2% in 2022.

Conversational AI applications will keep expanding across business domains, said Annette Jump, senior director analyst at Gartner, in a report.

"The next challenges for product leaders in software and tech providers will be to make investment decisions on integrating and enhancing the top use cases to accelerate time to market and improve the outcomes," Jump said.