Austin, Texas, USA, April 30, 2025
New research from The Futurum Group indicates that a significant portion of organizations are encountering difficulties in deploying Generative AI. The study reveals that data privacy and security pose the most substantial challenge, affecting nearly half (48.1%) of organizations.
Futurum’s AI Decision Makers Survey also identified other key obstacles in AI transformation. Talent shortages (44.2%) and the complexities of regulatory compliance (41.0%) were cited as the second and third most prominent barriers, respectively.
Figure 1: Challenges Faced by Organizations when Adopting Generative AI
Nick Patience, VP & AI Practice Lead at Futurum, said, “While organizations are rapidly advancing their AI implementation strategies, they continue to face significant challenges around data privacy and security. The fact that nearly half of the respondents highlight this concern signals the critical importance of robust governance frameworks as Generative AI adoption accelerates.”
The research reveals several key developments shaping the Generative AI implementation landscape:
- Data Privacy Paramount: 48.1% of organizations cite data privacy and security vulnerabilities—including compliance with data sovereignty laws, securing sensitive training data, and preventing model leakage—as their top challenges.
- Talent Gap Persists: 44.2% of organizations struggle with talent scarcity and knowledge gaps in advanced AI techniques, particularly in transformer models and neural networks.
- Regulatory Complexity: 41.0% of organizations face challenges navigating emerging AI regulations, data governance requirements, GDPR compliance, and establishing AI ethics boards.
- Ethical AI Concerns: 40.8% of organizations express concerns about responsible AI implementation, including risks of bias, hallucination in models, explainability, and accountability for AI-generated content.
“The findings underscore the complex balance organizations must strike between rapid AI adoption and responsible implementation,” noted Patience. “While technical hurdles like computational costs and legacy system integration remain significant, the governance challenges around privacy, talent, compliance, and ethics are proving most difficult to overcome.”
The survey reveals an implementation maturity split across organizations. Larger enterprises increasingly focus on building robust governance frameworks and specialized AI talent pools, while smaller companies lean toward managed services and pre-trained models that address privacy and compliance concerns. This bifurcation suggests an evolving AI implementation ecosystem in 2025, with providers needing to offer comprehensive governance solutions and specialized talent resources.
Read more in the “2H 2024 AI Software/Tools Decision Maker Survey AI Software & Tools” report on the Futurum Intelligence Platform.
About Futurum Intelligence for Market Leaders
Futurum Intelligence’s AI Software & Tools IQ service provides actionable insight from analysts, reports, and interactive visualization datasets, helping leaders drive their organizations through transformation and business growth. Subscribers can log into the platform at https://app.futurumgroup.com/, and non-subscribers can find additional information at Futurum Intelligence.
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Other insights from The Futurum Group:
Futurum Intelligence AI Software & Tools IQ – Subscribers*
Futurum Research 2025 Key Issues & Predictions
AI Software Market Shows Strong Growth as Organizations Accelerate AI Adoption
Author Information
Nick is VP and Practice Lead for AI at The Futurum Group. Nick is a thought leader on the development, deployment and adoption of AI - an area he has been researching for 25 years. Prior to Futurum, Nick was a Managing Analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence, with responsibility for 451 Research’s coverage of Data, AI, Analytics, Information Security and Risk. Nick became part of S&P Global through its 2019 acquisition of 451 Research, a pioneering analyst firm Nick co-founded in 1999. He is a sought-after speaker and advisor, known for his expertise in the drivers of AI adoption, industry use cases, and the infrastructure behind its development and deployment. Nick also spent three years as a product marketing lead at Recommind (now part of OpenText), a machine learning-driven eDiscovery software company. Nick is based in London.
