September 23, 2025
AI Blind Spots: 85% of Enterprises Fear They Have Just 18 Months to Catch Up
Enterprises are racing headfirst into artificial intelligence. By the end of 2025, AI investments are expected to hit $644 billion, yet the business case for these massive bets remains shaky. According to the Larridin 2025 State of Enterprise AI Report, the urgency to adopt AI is colliding with a dangerous lack of visibility and governance.
The findings suggest a paradox at the heart of AI adoption: 72% of leaders believe AI is already impacting profitability, yet 55% aren’t sure their investments are paying off. Enterprises want speed, but they’re struggling with scale, accountability, and ROI.
“AI is growing at an incredible pace; however, companies lose sight of it even faster,” said Russ Fradin, CEO and Co-Founder of Larridin. “To unlock AI’s full potential and accelerate internal adoption, organisations must gain visibility into their stack by doing a full AI diagnosis that entails implementing systems to track, measure, and optimise usage. This will allow enterprises to increase ROI, boost productivity, and scale the best use cases, improving their overall health.”
The AI Adoption Challenge
Executives overwhelmingly recognise the need for rapid AI adoption. 85% believe they have only 18 months to build AI capabilities before falling behind competitors. This ticking clock is pushing organisations toward costly solutions that employees often aren’t ready to use, creating an adoption gap that erodes potential returns.
The disconnect shows up in the numbers:
- 64% of leaders admit they’ve lost visibility into their AI stack.
- 78% say they want transformation but fear losing control over implementation.
- Eight in ten worry that confidential data is being exposed to public AI models.
- Nearly 80% report that untracked AI budgets are becoming a major accounting concern.
These challenges are even more acute for large enterprises with 10,000+ employees, where sprawling tech ecosystems make it harder to monitor, optimise, and govern AI usage.
The Paradox of Security Risks
If AI adoption is accelerating, so too are the risks of misuse. The Larridin report highlights an unsettling paradox: 91% of enterprises say they conduct internal AI audits, yet 84% discovered more AI applications than expected. In other words, even as companies tighten governance, employees are bypassing official channels to get the tools they want.
This phenomenon—often referred to as “shadow AI”—creates cascading risks:
- 52% worry about accidental sharing of sensitive data.
- 44% cite outdated or insufficient security protocols.
- 44% highlight unauthorised AI tools being installed.
The most common ways employees sidestep governance include browser-based tools (48%), free or public models (45%), and personal accounts to access AI systems (44%).
ROI Under Threat
The governance gap doesn’t just raise security red flags; it also undermines ROI. As many as 81% of enterprises say hidden or untracked AI usage makes it difficult to measure returns on investment, while half cite it as their single biggest governance challenge.
Without a clear picture of what’s being used and how, enterprises risk pouring billions into tools that don’t deliver measurable outcomes, while simultaneously exposing themselves to compliance and data security failures.
