Beyond the hype: Governing general purpose AI for real-world risk

We are living in a time where AI is no longer just a futuristic concept, but a practical force that is transforming industries, reshaping workflows, and influencing business decisions at every possible level. We believe that empowering businesses to harness the full potential of AI while ensuring a secure foundation is not only a technical challenge, but a strategic imperative.

General purpose artificial intelligence brings a wide range of benefits, from process automation and improved decision-making to enhanced customer experiences and new opportunities for innovation. However, these opportunities are accompanied by considerable security risks that demand careful attention and proactive management.

Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation operating in 54 countries under two brands — Atos for services and Eviden for products and systems. In our roles as part of the Atos and Eviden Future Makers Research Community, we work closely with technology leaders and business innovators and have witnessed firsthand the incredible promise as well as the complex risks that come with the rise of general purpose artificial intelligence.

In our experience, organizations sometimes rush to deploy AI solutions without thoroughly considering how these tools might be exploited or misused. The vulnerabilities are real and addressing them requires a combination of vigilance, expertise, and a proactive approach. And in this article, we dive into these challenges and risks, steps to secure your business and a few real-world examples to showcase the practicality of our approach.

Security risks related to general purpose artificial intelligence

General purpose AI systems, by nature, are designed to perform a wide range of tasks, making them attractive targets for cyber threats. Some of the key risks include data breaches, model manipulation, unauthorized access, and the spread of misinformation. For example, attackers can exploit weaknesses in AI models to alter outputs, steal sensitive information, or even manipulate automated decisions. Such threats can have direct financial impacts and can severely damage an organization’s reputation.

Regulatory compliance with transparent, explainable AI solutions

Another major risk is the lack of transparency and explainability in some AI systems. When businesses do not fully understand how AI reaches its conclusions, it becomes harder to detect errors or malicious tampering. This lack of transparency can also complicate regulatory compliance and undermine stakeholder trust.

From our experience helping organizations use AI, we’ve noticed that many companies forget how important it is to make their AI systems safe and easy to understand right from the start.

Why securing general purpose artificial intelligence matters for your business

Securing general purpose AI is not just a technical necessity, it is a matter of regulatory and strategic importance.

Regulatory bodies across the globe are introducing new rules to ensure AI systems are safe, fair, and trustworthy. Non-compliance can result in significant penalties, legal challenges, and loss of market access. Businesses must therefore stay ahead of evolving regulations by developing robust security frameworks that address both current and emerging risks.

From a strategic perspective, organizations that proactively secure their AI systems gain a competitive advantage. They can innovate with confidence, knowing that their data, intellectual property, and customer trust are protected. Moreover, a strong security posture helps businesses overcome challenges such as skill gaps, internal resistance, and the complexity of integrating AI into existing systems.

We firmly believe that when organizations treat AI security as a core business priority, they create a foundation for sustainable growth and lasting success.

Moving from reactive to proactive AI risk management

Moving from a reactive to a proactive approach to AI risk management fundamentally changes how organizations adopt and scale artificial intelligence. Rather than responding to incidents after they occur, proactive AI security enables organizations to anticipate risks, embed controls early, and make informed decisions throughout the AI lifecycle.

This approach allows businesses to:

• Reduce operational and regulatory risk by identifying vulnerabilities before AI systems are deployed or scaled
• Accelerate innovation with confidence, enabling faster experimentation and adoption of AI while maintaining strong security and compliance guarantees
• Improve trust and transparency with regulators, customers, and internal stakeholders by demonstrating that AI risks are understood, governed, and continuously managed
• Optimize costs and resources, avoiding expensive remediation, project delays, or reputational damage caused by late-stage security issues

By treating AI risk management as a strategic enabler rather than a constraint, organizations gain greater agility, resilience, and long-term business value from their AI investments.

Transformative approaches for comprehensive AI risk management

Atos and Eviden deliver an end-to-end, risk-based approach to securing general purpose AI, generative AI, and emerging agentic systems across their full lifecycle, from early experimentation to industrialized, large-scale operations. Our solutions combine strategic governance with hands-on operationalization, ensuring AI security principles are not only defined, but effectively enforced in production environments.

Our portfolio brings together:

• Advisory and governance services to help organizations structure their AI security strategy, including AI security awareness, risk assessments, policy definition, operating models, and support for AI related procurement and Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• Evidence-based AI risk management, providing factual visibility into AI usage, including shadow AI, and enabling structured risk tiering to focus strong controls where exposure and business impact justify them
• Security engineering and validation, including secure-by-design build of AI and agentic systems, penetration testing for Gen AI applications, and validation of real world control effectiveness
• Operational AI security capabilities, leveraging advanced cybersecurity foundations such as identity, encryption, key management, secure cloud and sovereign infrastructures, as well as AI-specific detection, monitoring, and incident response delivered through managed security services
• Datacentric and agent-aware controls, securing data lineage, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and model inputs, while governing agent identities, permissions, and autonomous actions to preserve control without limiting innovation

This risk-based implementation approach allows organizations to move beyond theoretical AI governance and translate policies into enforceable, auditable rules, continuously monitored and adapted as threats, technologies, and regulations evolve. By combining deep cybersecurity expertise, strong alliances with technology partners, and sovereign AI capabilities, Atos and Eviden enable customers to scale AI with confidence, securely, compliantly, and sustainably.

The real-world impact with customer success stories