Survey finds low compliance with AI and privacy laws

Ahead of the passage of reforms to the Privacy Act, new research indicates that less than a third (28%) of Australian businesses are fully compliant with existing regulations around using customer data to train AI.

A survey of business and IT leaders conducted by Sapio Research and released by trust management platform Vanta found that only 24% of respondents report that their organisation is using anonymised customer data to train AI. In addition, only 54% say their businesses have a formal policy governing the use of AI, and only half have a dedicated team to oversee AI security and compliance. This puts Australia 13 percentage points behind the UK and 9 percentage points below the US.

The research comes just months before the federal government plans to bring new privacy laws into effect which would require businesses to protect the integrity of customer data and preserve their privacy.

Vanta APAC GM Jonathon Coleman said the findings should be cause for concern.

“AI has the potential to completely transform the way businesses work, but it comes with a significant amount of risk as well. For example, using customer data to train AI could lead to AI hallucinating or worse, resurfacing personal information inadvertently or damaging customer trust,” he said. “Soon, even more stringent regulation will be in place that forces organisations to take measures to protect their customers’ data, and use AI safely and ethically.

“The issue, though, is that proving compliance with regulation has historically been a headache — it has taken considerable time and effort to put effective measures in place, gather documentation and present it to authorities in a way that meets their high standards.”

But Coleman added that while AI can be part of the problem, it can also be part of the solution, with the technology now able to automate up to 85% of compliance processes. “Once you can prove compliance, you start to foster greater trust with your customers,” he said.

Currently 55% of Australian respondents said their organisation is providing employees with training on the secure use of AI tools, the survey found.

Image credit: iStock.com/Sansert Sangsakawrat