By ; Mostafa Ibrahim 

The State of Generative AI 2025

In our State of Generative AI report, the Palo Alto Networks product and research teams explore the adoption and use of generative AI (GenAI) technology across our customers. Our data yielded some noteworthy trends based on the tens of thousands of tenants we observed. Here’s what we found:

·        GenAI traffic surged more than 890% in 2024. This explosive growth may be attributable to maturing AI models, greater enterprise automation, and higher adoption due to more evident productivity gains. Increased adoption and usage marks a definitive shift from GenAI as a novelty to an essential utility.

·        Data loss prevention (DLP) incidents for GenAI more than doubled. In 2025, the average monthly number of GenAI-related data security incidents increased 2.5X, now comprising 14% of all data security incidents. GenAI apps amplify a growing data loss vector, as unsanctioned or careless usage can lead to intellectual property leaks, regulatory compliance concerns, and data breaches.

·        Organizations saw on average 66 GenAI apps, with 10% classified as high risk. The widespread use of unsanctioned GenAI tools, lack of clear AI policies, and pressure to adopt AI quickly—without proper security controls—can expose organizations to significant risk, especially from high-risk GenAI apps.

This report dives into the world of AI adoption to explore its benefits, challenges, and how to balance AI innovation with security to safely transform how businesses operate for years to come. We’ll analyze what we’re seeing at Palo Alto Networks to provide valuable insights that will position you for success in this AI revolution.

Methodology

We employed a comprehensive approach to analyze GenAI traffic across our servers to help ensure the reliability of our findings. Our methodology compiled historical traffic logs across a sample of 7,051 global customers, spanning the entirety of 2024. Anonymized DLP incidents were also collected and analyzed from January to March 2025. The totality of our analysis was conducted with strict adherence to privacy and security guidelines, ensuring no sensitive customer data was exposed during the research process.

For this report, we observed trends for third-party-provisioned GenAI apps accessed across Prisma® Access and Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) deployments.