Organizations Counter AI-Driven Attacks with More AI

Global organizations are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to counter AI-driven cyberattacks, which have surged by 56% over the past year. According to IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026, the global average cost of a data breach has increased 12% to $4.99 million or $1,100 per hour.

The report found that AI-driven attacks are more expensive for organizations, adding an average of $1 million per breach. The top two sectors affected by these attacks are financial services and energy, with average costs of $6.29 million and $5.2 million respectively. These sectors are at a higher risk due to the systemic impact of disruptions in one organization cascading into broader economic and power grid impacts.

Despite this, 85% of surveyed businesses are planning to increase their security spending after experiencing a breach. Of these, 74% intend to use AI agents in their security operations center (SOCs), particularly for alert triage, penetration testing, vulnerability scans, and management.