As a key part of our AI & tech team at Champions (UK) plc, I’ve spent the past few years helping businesses unlock the true potential of artificial intelligence. What’s clear is that we are now firmly in the age of AI-driven transformation.
Across sectors, companies are adopting large language models (LLMs) at pace, whether to automate customer interactions, generate content, analyse data, or optimise operations. But as this adoption intensifies, so does the imperative to secure these powerful systems.
In my view, LLM security testing isn’t just a technical necessity anymore, but instead a strategic move that underpins sustainable business growth.
LLMs such as GPT-4 and Claude have rapidly evolved to offer capabilities that are near-indistinguishable from human cognition in specific tasks. While this opens new horizons, it also introduces risks that traditional IT security frameworks weren’t built to handle. The very same flexibility that makes these models so useful also makes them prone to exploitation.
One of the most urgent issues is prompt injection, where an attacker manipulates a model’s input to override its instructions. In 2024, the OWASP Foundation officially recognised prompt injection as one of the top ten LLM security vulnerabilities, highlighting just how serious this issue has become. These aren’t speculative risks either. A recent benchmark, CyberSecEval 2, demonstrated that even advanced models remain vulnerable, with between 26% and 41% of attacks successfully bypassing defences.
For businesses, the implications are clear. If your LLM is compromised, it’s not just a model that’s at risk, it’s your entire operational credibility. From leaking sensitive customer data to enabling internal misuse or reputationally damaging outputs, the consequences can be profound. Because LLMs are often embedded into customer-facing channels, these security gaps are visible, immediate, and potentially brand-damaging.
Securing your AI systems is a foundational requirement for any business looking to scale responsibly. In fact, investing in LLM security testing is one of the clearest ways to signal to your stakeholders that your organisation is future-ready.
It builds customer trust, protects intellectual property, ensures alignment with evolving regulations, and, most importantly, avoids costly downtime or public backlash. It also enables your teams to move faster, knowing that the underlying infrastructure is secure.
There’s a growing understanding among investors and founders alike that AI without security is a liability. In April 2025, AI security startup SplxAI raised $7 million to develop tools that proactively identify and contain LLM risks. Their approach uses ‘red-teaming’, essentially simulated attacks, to discover weaknesses before malicious actors do.
This kind of offensive security testing is rapidly becoming best practice, and rightly so. Waiting for a breach is no longer acceptable when your AI is directly influencing customer experience, strategic decisions, and even legal compliance.
At Champions (UK) plc, we take this responsibility seriously. Our AI consultancy work has evolved alongside the technology itself. We now work with a wide range of scale-up and enterprise clients to rigorously test their AI deployments using modern frameworks specifically designed for LLMs.
Our LLM security testing methodology goes deep into model behaviour, risk profiling, and access control, to ensure our clients’ systems are robust and resilient. This is a strategic enabler for growth. We’ve seen first-hand how businesses that prioritise security gain a competitive edge, not only in terms of resilience, but also by being able to accelerate innovation with confidence.
One of the most overlooked benefits of secure AI is operational clarity. When your systems are secure, your teams can innovate faster, deploy new features without fear, and explore advanced automation strategies. Security creates headroom for creativity, because no one’s watching their back for lurking threats. It also ensures that data quality and integrity remain intact, which is absolutely crucial as businesses scale their AI operations.
Ultimately, the question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in LLM security testing. It’s whether you can afford not to. The more integrated AI becomes, the more amplified the risks of neglecting its security. As someone who’s spent years at the forefront of this space, I can confidently say that the businesses that are growing fastest right now are also the ones who are treating AI security as a core strategic pillar, not an afterthought.
If your business is building or scaling with AI, now is the time to act. Secure your systems, protect your growth, and unlock the full potential of what’s possible.
To learn more about how Champions (UK) plc can help, reach out to our AI & Tech team today. You can fill out our online contact form here or give us a call on 08453 31 30 31 to book a free consultancy call about our LLM security testing services.