AI Bolsters Defense Against Attacks, But Governance Falls Behind

A survey by Cisco found that while AI has improved defense against attacks, governance lags behind. The report analyzed responses from over 8,000 security professionals and revealed that 91% experienced at least one disruptive incident in the past year.

Of these incidents, 35% were tied to AI-driven threats. Only 8% of respondents were classified as 'Relentless Defenders', a group that has the coverage, speed, and organizational alignment to keep pace with AI-driven threats.

The average organization scored 64 out of 100 in Cisco's Relentless Defense report. Respondents credited AI with improving threat detection speed by at least 25% (87%), response and remediation (85%), and reducing the operational burden on their teams (nearly nine in ten).

However, adoption remains uneven, with fewer than half of organizations deploying AI capabilities extensively in any single domain. Security operations ranks lowest, with only a third having extensively deployed AI agents.