Heimdal Survey: Executives Four Times More Confident About AI Risk Than the Teams Managing It

Heimdal's 2026 survey of 1,000 UK and US IT professionals finds AI adoption has outpaced security controls by roughly two-to-one, executives are significantly more confident about AI risk than frontline practitioners, and teams with greater visibility report higher concerns about data leakage; the report cites a January 2026 disclosure where a CISA acting director uploaded "For Official Use Only" documents to ChatGPT as an example of AI-related data exposure and recommends treating AI services with the same procurement, contractual, inventory, and technical controls as other critical IT suppliers.