A new World Economic Forum (WEF) report reveals that artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming cybersecurity, emerging as the dominant force driving change in the sector. Titled AI and Cyber: Empowering Defenders and developed in partnership with KPMG, the analysis—drawing from 20 real-world case studies and discussions with leaders from 84 organizations across 15 industries—shows how strategic AI deployment delivers tangible gains in efficiency, speed, and resilience.
According to the research findings, 94 percent of cybersecurity executives see AI as the defining influence on the field, and 77 percent of organizations have already integrated it into their operations.
When used extensively, AI helps organizations slash average breach costs by as much as $1.9 million while shortening breach response times by roughly 80 days.
These improvements stem from AI’s ability to accelerate threat intelligence, automate routine tasks, and enable faster decision-making at scale.
Real-world examples underscore the impact. One KPMG initiative achieved a 25 percent boost in operational efficiency for threat intelligence.
Accenture reduced analysis time for over 100,000 internet-facing assets from 15 minutes to under one minute. IBM’s ATOM platform automates hundreds of analyst hours monthly and cuts end-to-end investigation times by 37 percent.
As attack surfaces expand dramatically and adversaries weaponize AI for faster, more sophisticated strikes, these capabilities allow defenders to match—or exceed—adversary speed.
The research report stresses that AI’s true value lies not in isolated automation but in augmenting human expertise through clear strategies, rigorously tested applications, and strong governance.
Industry professionals must invest in skills, processes, and oversight to realize these benefits. Akshay Joshi, Head of the Centre for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum, noted that treating AI as a strategic capability shifts cyber risk into competitive resilience.
Laurent Gobbi of KPMG called AI a “force multiplier” for defense as attackers accelerate.
The discussion extends to the rise of agentic AI—autonomous systems capable of planning, reasoning, and executing multi-step actions with minimal human input.
The WEF’s Cyber Frontiers initiative explicitly aims to support secure, scalable adoption of agentic AI to build a “secure agentic economy.” Other research highlights both promise and peril in digital financial services and security.
Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise report finds agentic AI usage poised to surge, with high potential in cybersecurity, though only one in five organizations currently have mature governance models—raising concerns about oversight lagging behind deployment.
In financial services, agentic systems enhance real-time fraud detection, transaction monitoring, compliance, and cyber defense, as detailed in analyses from FinRegLab and the IMF.
These tools can adapt dynamically to threats, reducing losses and operational costs by up to 35 percent in some cases, per
However, expanded attack surfaces and new risks—such as autonomous actions on sensitive data—demand robust guardrails, according to McKinsey and academic surveys on agentic AI in cybersecurity. Organizations that balance innovation with accountability stand to gain the most. As cyber threats evolve at machine speed, the WEF urges business and government officials / entities to embed AI as a foundational capability.