Is Your Reputation Al-Proof?

Corporate leaders must proactively protect their organization's reputation from various GenAI threats

- By Raju Chellam

Here's a strategic story for the new year: John is a salesman at a software firm and earns a salary of $2,000 a month. Owing to a general drop in software sales, the company announces that commissions on sales will be paid out only by midyear. John is therefore surprised to see that the company has credited $2,500 as salary for November 2024. He rejoices quietly and does not enquire why the additional amount was paid. He is alarmed, however, when he notices that his salary for December is only $1,500.

"I'm shocked to see that my salary was sliced in December," John complains to the head of finance.

"Why?"

"In November, you received an excess payment and didn't complain," the finance manager replies. "Why?"

"That's because I'm a very forgiving man," John says. "I always forgive the first mistake. But when you make a second mistake, that needs to be called out and corrected." If that quip made you giggle, these statistics should make you wriggle: AI could add between US$2.6 trillion to US$4.4 trillion annually globally in productivity gains, estimates a McKinsey study. "This would increase the impact of all AI by 15% to 40%," the firm says. "This estimate would roughly double if we include the impact of embedding GenAI into software that is currently used for other tasks beyond the known use cases."

For comparison, India's GDP in 2023 was estimated at US$3.55 trillion. So far so good. But every silver cloud now has a dark lining. For instance, concern about AI-enhanced malicious attacks topped Gartner's emerging risk rankings in Q1 and Q2 2024. New concerns regarding soft ransomware targets are also coming to the forefront of enterprise risks.