IBM has released its annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, which has revealed AI adoption is greatly outpacing AI security and governance. While the overall number of organisations experiencing an AI-related breach is a small representation of the researched population, this is the first time security, governance and access controls for AI have been studied in this report, which suggests AI is already an easy, high value target.

Even as CIOs try to limit SaaS sprawl, the problem appears to be getting worse, as employees keep adding new apps instead of removing them, according to a new study.

While SaaS sprawl is a well-known and long-standing problem, more than six in 10 IT leaders say their organisations are adding new SaaS tools every month, according to a new report from intelligent process automation provider Nintex. Nearly a third of US organisations represented in the survey add new SaaS apps every week.

As a result, IT leaders at more than half of US organisations surveyed admitting having between 51 and 200 SaaS tools within their tech infrastructure, while about half of UK and Australian organisations have the same problem.

The SaaS sprawl epidemic has been building in recent years, as consumers and companies have seen new apps as a way to address a specific issue, says Niranjan Vijayaragavan, Nintex’s chief product officer.

“Talent was expensive, and so building something enterprise grade was difficult,” he says. “It has led to this sprawl of SaaS applications, where every small group has gone and purchased something to solve their own problem.”

But there’s a problem: Every new SaaS app brings specific workflows that may not fit with the company’s business operations, he adds. App developers often hard-code workflows into their products, assuming all client companies run the same way.

“The first problem is your business operation gets defined by how the application runs, and that should never be the case,” Vijayaragavan says. “You should define what your business operations are, and software as a solution for it, not a cause for it.”

Flexera have released their 2025 State of ITAM Report, which reveals a concerning decline in complete visibility across the technology stack – down to 43% from 47% year-over-year. Yet, as pressure mounts to optimise costs, the collaboration of IT asset management (ITAM) with cloud (44%) and FinOps (38%) teams is on the rise, suggesting that ITAM teams are increasingly working across organisational silos to address comprehensive visibility challenges, increase financial accountability and drive operational efficiency.

Flexera’s annual report surveys global IT professionals to explore how the evolution of ITAM, FinOps, security, software asset management (SAM) and hardware asset management (HAM) teams influences the value they deliver. It also examines IT investment trends across public, hybrid, and SaaS technologies.

“Complete visibility across IT assets is foundational to every good technology decision,” said Becky Trevino, Chief Product Officer at Flexera. “The fact that it’s slipping at a time when organisations are under intense pressure to rationalise costs is a real concern. You can’t optimise what you can’t see and without clear insight into the entire technology stack, it’s nearly impossible to eliminate waste, ensure compliance, or make cost-effective investment decisions. This year’s report showcases why the collaboration between ITAM and FinOps is no longer optional—it’s a strategic imperative.”

Highlights from the report include: