Answer. First-party data arrives in October from the General Counsel Executive Forum. The proxies in the rooms: 25 percent of senior security leaders name shadow AI, the unsanctioned use an AI policy exists to prevent, as their top problem (base 110), and 11 percent of finance-lane respondents report no single AI owner (base 290).
Source. CISO and Executive AI Leverage Reports, September 2026. Open Future Forum, Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index. Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21576019. Bases are unique people per instrument; bases under 40 are directional.
External comparator. IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2026: 68 percent of breached organizations had no policy to oversee AI use or manage shadow AI; only 38 percent require IT approval before AI is deployed. External figures are context only; the source is not affiliated with this page and does not endorse it.
Questions to ask.
- Write the policy before the next audit asks for it
- Make unauthorized use discoverable, not only prohibited
- Assign one owner for the policy and one for enforcement
- Review vendor intake against the policy quarterly
Last refreshed September 2026. First-party data for this seat is collected from October 2026; until then this page interprets the September editions and contains no new survey data. Part of The Sept Reports for dealmakers.
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About Murray Newlands
Murray Newlands is the founder of Open Future Forum and the host of its executive dinner series and research program. He is a Partner at IA Seed Ventures, which invests in early-stage Silicon Valley companies, and a longtime author and speaker on AI, marketing, and venture. He writes on AI, venture, and enterprise strategy at murraynewlands.substack.com. More at openfutureforum.com/about and murraynewlands.com.
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