TELUS Digital Survey Reveals Enterprise Employees Are Entering Sensitive Data Into AI Assistants More Than You Think
57% of enterprise employees admit to entering high-risk information into publicly available generative AI assistants, exposing critical security gaps in enterprise AI usage
Findings reveal a critical need for enterprise AI solutions that prioritize security, data sovereignty, and compliance to mitigate shadow AI risks
Nearly seven out of 10 (68%) enterprise employees who use generative AI (GenAI) at work say they access publicly available GenAI assistants such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini through personal accounts, and more than half (57%) have admitted to entering sensitive information into them. The findings come from a new survey by TELUS Digital Experience (TELUS Digital) (NYSE and TSX:TIXT), a global technology company whose proprietary GenAI platform, Fuel iX™, is built with data sovereignty at its core—allowing organizations to give employees access to GenAI while keeping company data safe. Fuel iX provides enterprises with the flexibility, control, and compliance safeguards needed to integrate AI securely and responsibly.
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TELUS Digital survey reveals security gaps in employee use of generative AI in enterprises (Graphic: Business Wire)
Many employees who bring their own AI (BYOAI) to work are inputting confidential information into public GenAI assistants, creating potential security and compliance risks. The widespread use of public GenAI tools is fueling the rise of "shadow AI", which obscures enterprise risks from IT and security managers.
Surveyed employees admitted to entering the following types of information into publicly available GenAI assistants:
- Personal data, such as names, addresses, emails and phone numbers (31%).
- Product or project details, including unreleased details and prototypes (29%).
- Customer information, including names, contact details, order history, chat logs, emails, or recorded calls (21%).
- Confidential company financial information, such as revenue, profit margins, budgets, or forecasts (11%).
This happens despite nearly a third (29%) of employees acknowledging their companies have policies in place that prohibit them from inputting company, client or other sensitive information into GenAI assistants.
Regardless of the risks, many employees in the survey indicated that their company is falling short on providing them with information and training to use GenAI safely:
- Only 24% of employees said their company requires mandatory AI assistant training.
- 44% said their company does not have AI guidelines or policies in place, or they don't know if their company does.
- 50% said they are not sure if they're adhering to their company's AI guidelines.
- 42% said there are no repercussions for not following their company's AI guidelines.
Employees rely on AI to work faster and smarter
Whether they are aware of the risks or their company's AI policies or not, the majority of employees are depending on GenAI assistants to enhance their performance at work:
- 60% said it helps them work faster.
- 57% said it makes their job easier.
- 49% said it improves their performance.
As a result, 84% want to continue using AI assistants at work, also citing additional benefits, such as increased creativity (51%) and the ability to offload repetitive tasks (50%).
"Generative AI is proving to be a productivity superpower for hundreds of business tasks," said Bret Kinsella, General Manager, Fuel iX™ at TELUS Digital. "Employees know this. If their company doesn't provide AI tools, they'll bring their own, which is problematic. Organizations are blind to the risks of shadow AI, even while they are secretly benefitting from productivity gains. However, providing AI tools is not enough to mitigate these risks. Employees will supplement company-provided AI with more advanced tools that are publicly available. Our survey shows that 22% of employees with access to a company-provided GenAI assistant still use personal GenAI accounts. A key to harnessing AI's potential while mitigating security risks is to provide employees with GenAI capabilities that include robust security and compliance and are also easily updated with the latest AI model improvements. Fuel iX's enterprise-grade generative AI solutions were purpose-built to address these challenges."
MWC 2025: Fueling Telecom's future with Fuel iX
TELUS Digital is unveiling its AI at Work survey results in the lead up to the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC25) March 3-6 in Barcelona, where it will showcase Fuel iX, the company's GenAI platform and suite of products during a panel discussion, "Fueling Telecom's Future: TELUS's Journey to GenAI Adoption, Contact Center Excellence, & CISO-Endorsed AI Safety". The presentation will explore a case study on how TELUS Digital enabled TELUS, one of North America's largest telecom providers, to create over 6,000 custom GenAI employee assistants across more than 50,000 global employees.
"Our commitment to secure and responsible AI meant we needed a solution that would allow employees to safely experiment and learn with AI, while always maintaining privacy and security guardrails to protect customer trust," said Hesham Fahmy, Chief Information Officer, TELUS. "As we have scaled our generative AI solutions, we see the real benefits for both our employees and customers. Our expansion of Fuel iX has allowed TELUS employees to save more than 500,000 hours, reducing time spent per task by over 40 minutes, elevating productivity and innovation while aligning with our Customers First promise."
TELUS Digital will share its blueprint for balancing rapid AI deployment with governance while highlighting agentic AI applications in telecom. The session will feature insights from technical leaders on AI-driven contact center transformation, and strategies to ensure AI remains a trusted, secure enabler of business success.
To learn more about how TELUS Digital can help your enterprise safely and securely deploy AI, visit telusdigital.com/contact
Survey Methodology: TELUS Digital's AI at Work survey findings are based on a Pollfish survey that was conducted in January 2025 and included responses from 1,000 adults aged 18+ who live in the United States, work at a company with 5,000 or more employees, and indicated they had used an AI assistant like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini or a similar/equivalent internal company chatbot at work.
About TELUS Digital
TELUS Digital ((NYSE &, TSX:TIXT) crafts unique and enduring experiences for customers and employees, and creates future-focused digital transformations that can withstand disruption and deliver value for our clients. We are the brand behind the brands. Our global team members are both passionate ambassadors of our clients' products and services, and visionary technology experts resolute in our pursuit to elevate their end customer journeys, solve business challenges, mitigate risks, and drive continuous innovation. Our portfolio of end-to-end, integrated capabilities include digital solutions, such as cloud solutions and AI-fueled automation, trust, safety and security services, AI data solutions, including expertise in computer vision, and front-end digital design and consulting services. Fuel iX™ is TELUS Digital's proprietary generative AI platform and suite of products at the heart of our innovation, helping enterprises advance their GenAI pilots to working prototypes and production at scale, quickly, securely and responsibly across multiple environments, applications and clouds.
Powered by purpose, TELUS Digital leverages technology, human ingenuity and compassion to fuel remarkable outcomes and create inclusive, thriving communities in the regions where we operate around the world. Guided by our Humanity-in-the-loop principles, we take a responsible approach to the transformational technologies we develop and deploy by proactively considering and addressing the broader impacts of our work. Learn more at: telusdigital.com
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