Palo Alto Networks’ State of Generative AI report finds 890% Surge in Gen AI traffic – raising new security challenges for APAC enterprises.
Palo Alto Networks has released its State of Generative AI 2025 report which reveals a staggering 890% surge in GenAI traffic in 2024 driven by the rapid adoption of GenAI tools in enterprise environments.
The report warns that unsanctioned GenAI usage, emerging threats and a lack of governance have rapidly expanded the attack surface for organisations, particularly across the APAC region.
This widespread adoption, the report says, is outpacing many organisations’ ability to implement appropriate security controls.
On average, organisations are now managing 66 GenAI applications in their environments – with 10% classified as high-risk.
Singapore is reinforcing its role as a regional leader in cybersecurity and AI, driven by strong government leadership and a digital-first economy.
Along with the newly refreshed National AI Strategy (NAIS 2.0) Singapore is investing in key areas of AI excellence to tackle global challenges while enabling individuals, businesses and communities to confidently embrace AI for inclusive growth and long-term resilience.
“AI adoption offers transformative opportunities across both commercial and government sectors in the region. But as this report highlights, we are also seeing an expanding attack surface, particularly with the use of high-risk GenAI applications in critical infrastructure sectors,” said Tom Scully, Director and Principal Architect for Government and Critical Industries, Asia Pacific & Japan, Palo Alto Networks.
“Organisations must balance innovation with strong governance, adopting security architectures that account for AI’s unique risks. From shadow AI and data leakage to the more complex threats posed by agentic AI models. Proactive oversight and adaptive security controls are essential to ensuring that the benefits of AI are fully realised without compromising national security, public trust or operational integrity.”
The 2025 State of GenAI report, based on traffic analysis from 7,051 global enterprise customers, provides an in-depth look into how enterprises are adopting GenAI and where they remain most vulnerable.
Key findings of the report include:
Exponential growth in GenAI adoption: GenAI traffic increased more than 890% in 2024. Following the release of DeepSeek-R1 in January 2025, DeepSeek-related traffic alone spiked by 1,800% within two months.
Rising data loss incidents: GenAI-related data loss prevention (DLP) incidents more than doubled, now accounting for 14% of all data security incidents.
Shadow AI emerges as a key risk: Unauthorised, unsanctioned GenAI use, termed “Shadow AI”, has created blind spots for IT and security teams, making it difficult to control sensitive data flows.
Critical infrastructure and government sectors face elevated risks: Many high-risk AI models remain susceptible to jailbreak attacks that produce unsafe content, including offensive material and instructions for illegal activities.
Industry-specific insights: Technology and manufacturing sectors alone account for 39% of AI coding transactions, creating additional risk for industries that depend on proprietary intellectual property.
“The use of GenAI in the workplace is no longer optional, it’s already happening. In Singapore, as businesses rapidly adopt GenAI tools – and with governance frameworks and models being established—a secure-by-design approach is essential to ensure sensitive data is protected, public trust is maintained, and innovation can scale safely,” said Steven Scheurmann, Regional Vice President for ASEAN, Palo Alto Networks.
The report also offers best practice recommendations for businesses seeking to safely harness the potential of GenAI:
Establish visibility and control: Gain comprehensive oversight of GenAI app usage, implement conditional access policies, and manage permissions at the user and group level.
Safeguard sensitive data: Deploy real-time content inspection with centralised policy enforcement to detect and prevent unauthorised data exfiltration.
Defend against AI-driven threats: Implement Zero Trust security architectures to mitigate modern cyberthreats, malware, and sophisticated AI-powered attacks.
Data for this report was derived from Palo Alto Networks’ analysis of GenAI traffic across a global customer base of 7,051 organisations throughout 2024.
