Enterprise Management Associates (EMA™) has released a new research report titled Leveraging DSPM and Artificial Intelligence to Solve Data Security Challenges, authored by Chris Steffen, Vice President of Research for Security, Risk, and Compliance Management.

Based on a survey of 225 IT professionals, security practitioners, data governance leaders, and technology business leaders across North American enterprises, the report explores how organizations are evolving their data security posture management (DSPM) strategies as artificial intelligence reshapes the data security landscape.

The findings indicate that AI is now a central driver of DSPM investment decisions, governance models, and operational priorities. As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, they are simultaneously confronting increased challenges around data visibility, governance accountability, multi-cloud complexity, and the growing need for automation to manage scale and risk.

"Data security has always been critical, but AI is accelerating both the complexity of the challenge and the speed at which organizations must respond," said Steffen.

Steffen continues, "Unfortunately, most organizations are not yet equipped to meet that standard. The enterprises that treat DSPM as a prerequisite for AI deployment—rather than an afterthought—will be the ones that remain in control."

Research Key Findings Include:

• AI is now the leading driver of DSPM investment. Securing AI data flows ranked as the top reason organizations adopt DSPM solutions (64.4%), surpassing data exfiltration prevention (56%) for the first time.
• AI governance accountability remains fragmented. Responsibility for AI-related data risk is distributed across IT teams (30.2%), security teams (29.8%), chief data officers (20%), and governance committees (18.7%), leaving many organizations without clear ownership.
• Multi-cloud environments continue to complicate governance. Nearly half of respondents (45.3%) cited maintaining consistent security policies across cloud providers as their top challenge, driven by differences in residency controls, key management practices, and security architectures.
• Automation is expected to ease operational burden. More than 85% of respondents expect automated remediation to reduce workloads, including roughly one-third anticipating reductions of more than 50%.

Beyond analyzing current challenges, the report provides guidance for evaluating DSPM platforms and capabilities in an increasingly AI-driven security environment.

Source: EMA

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