Fortinet EVP Warns Cybersecurity Teams on AI Adoption
BetaKit reports that Robert May, Fortinet's Executive Vice President of Technology and Product, told a Fortinet event in Montreal that the rapid spread of AI tools has created blind spots for security teams. May said, "Two years ago, people were just playing around with ChatGPT, but now there are thousands of tools, and [businesses] don't know which ones their employees are using," according to BetaKit. The piece cites a McKinsey survey pointing to near-universal AI use inside organizations and reports that only about half of leaders believe their boards are fully aware of AI risks. May warned that unmanaged adoption raises the chance of sensitive business data and source code being exposed through tools that bypass formal security review.
What happened
BetaKit reports that Robert May, Executive Vice President of Technology and Product at Fortinet, spoke at a Fortinet event in Montreal about the gap between AI adoption and enterprise security. According to BetaKit, May said many organizations "don't even know the problem that they're dealing with," and added, "Two years ago, people were just playing around with ChatGPT, but now there are thousands of tools, and [businesses] don't know which ones their employees are using." BetaKit also cites a McKinsey survey pointing to near-universal AI use among respondents, and reports Fortinet's own survey found only about half of leaders believe their boards are fully aware of potential AI risks.
Technical context
Rapid, unmanaged adoption of AI increases the number and diversity of services that touch sensitive data. As a generic pattern, shadow-AI usage tends to create additional data-egress channels, undocumented API keys, and uncontrolled data-leakage risk. For defensive teams, this shows up as higher telemetry volume and more heterogeneous sources to ingest and correlate.
Context and significance
Security teams have faced telemetry and staffing pressures for years; pervasive AI tooling broadens what needs protecting. Boards and leadership often lag in visibility over developer and business-unit tool choices, which raises operational risk and complicates incident response. Fortinet's own 2026 research has separately highlighted cyber-hiring pushback and skills gaps, reinforcing the leadership-awareness theme.
What to watch
inventory and classification of SaaS and AI endpoints used across the organization, observable data flows to those endpoints, and governance around model-data access. Measurable improvement shows up as tighter access controls, richer telemetry from AI integrations, and board-level reporting on AI exposure.
Quote
BetaKit quotes May saying AI tools are increasingly "dealing with data that is basically driving the business," and highlighting the risk that leaked developer-generated source code could expose a company's value proposition.
Limitations
These remarks and survey figures are as reported by BetaKit; the article does not publish Fortinet's raw survey data, and no Fortinet policy documents or board statements are included.
Scoring Rationale
Executive commentary at a Fortinet event, reported by BetaKit, on the real and growing problem of shadow AI and unmanaged tool adoption. Useful and relevant to security practitioners, but it is thought-leadership and survey color rather than a new product, breach, or research finding, placing it in the solid range.
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