Enterprises will spend more than $30bn combatting misinformation and disinformation by 2028, says a new book by Gartner, meaning 10% of marketing and cybersecurity budgets will be diverted to defend against deepfakes, AI-generated content, phishing, and data manipulation.
A 2024 Gartner survey of 200 senior business and technology executives found that 72% of respondents identified misinformation, disinformation and malinformation as very or relatively important issues to their executive committees.
Andrew Frank, VP Analyst in the Gartner for Marketing Leaders practice and co-author of World Without Truth: “The lack of reliable information needs to be seen as a meta-issue that compromises everyone’s ability to understand and deal with all other issues.”
Co-author Dave Aron, VP Analyst and Gartner Fellow in the Gartner for High Tech Leaders and Providers practice, added: “The disinformation threat will continue to grow, fuelled by increasingly elaborate uses of synthetic reality, behavioural science and digital media.
“However, there are concrete steps that organisations can take to marginalise the impact and track new threat vectors.”
The book recommends organisations form Trust Councils, composed of representatives from across organisational boundaries, led by C-Suite individuals from communications, IT, finance, legal, HR, and marketing.
It also puts forward four macro levers to attack disinformation across rules, governance and processes, education, nudges and incentives, and technology and tools.
