IBM's 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, drawing on Ponemon Institute research across 600 organizations, quantified for the first time the financial drag created by ungoverned enterprise AI adoption. The report found that 97% of breached organizations that suffered an AI-related security incident lacked proper AI access controls, and 63% lacked AI governance policies to manage AI use or prevent employees from using shadow AI tools. High levels of shadow AI, where workers download or use unapproved internet-based AI tools, added an extra USD 670,000 to the global average breach cost, with AI-related breaches producing broad data compromise and operational disruption that interrupted sales orders, customer service and supply chains. Even with these new risks, the global average breach cost fell 9% to USD 4.44 million from USD 4.88 million the prior year, the first decline in five years, driven by AI-powered defenses that cut mean detection and containment time to 241 days, the lowest in nine years. The report also noted that 13% of surveyed organizations had experienced an attack that impacted their AI models or applications, and urged tighter identity and access management, cloud security review, AI governance, and continuous staff training.

Sources

• -https://www.ibm.com/think/x-force/2025-cost-of-a-data-breach-navigating-ai