‘AI is here to stay’: Cyber experts, investors foresee more AI evolution

Does the rapid growth of the AI market foreshadow a bubble about to burst? With the lightning speed at which AI investments have taken off, some fear a repeat of the dotcom crash and wonder whether new AI-driven technologies can really live up to the hype.

“We are already starting to see questions about whether valuations make sense given the immense cost of running a generative AI startup,” Seth Spergel, managing partner at SC Awards Finalist Merlin Ventures, told SC Media.

However, when it comes to the use of AI in cybersecurity, experts who spoke with SC Media expressed confidence that AI isn’t going anywhere and that there is only room for more growth in applying the technology to the needs of the security industry.

“I’m a lot more comfortable investing in spaces that leverage AI in support of other use cases, like cyber, rather than pure play AI investments,” Spergel said.

Rather than lose momentum, the fast-paced growth of AI will instead redirect down a path that will further benefit cybersecurity, predicts Sivan Tehila, CEO and founder of Onyxia Cyber, SC Awards Winner for Best AI/ML Data Analytics Security Solution and Best Emerging Technology.

“AI is here to stay and the advances in AI technology will only grow from here on out. I don’t foresee a downturn in interest demand, but rather an expansion of demand in specific domains,” said Sehila. “For example, among the first focuses with the AI boom have been chatbots powered by LLMs and generative AI; the focus could evolve to other areas where AI can help us, like predictive models powered by data analysis.”

How AI can fundamentally change cybersecurity

It’s clear that security and cyber market experts see AI as much more than just a trend or fad, but a turning point in how cyber defenders can maximize their capabilities.

“AI goes hand-in-hand with automation, and we’re seeing AI automation transform various workflows in security operations. From detecting threats that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, to automating triage, remediation, and response, AI is enabling human analysts to focus on the more complex and strategic aspects of their roles that truly make a difference,” said Mike Britton, CISO at Abnormal Security, SC Awards Winner for Best Security Company.

The ability for AI to free up time for cybersecurity staff and improve cyber defense coverage amid the cyber talent shortage was an ongoing theme across our conversations with experts in the field, who noted capabilities including phishing and endpoint threat detection, vulnerability and configuration management, automated and enhanced incident response and streamlined deployment of cybersecurity software.

Tehila noted that an Onyxia Cyber survey of 200 CISOs found that 97% believed AI could enhance risk management at their organization.

“I found these statistics encourage as I believe that by embracing AI technology, security leaders can move away from time-consuming, manual methods — like spreadsheets –— and, in real-time, fully harness the power of all the data in their ecosystems to maximize their existing security tools, enhance preparedness, and better protect their organizations,” Tehila stated.

Morgan Kyauk, managing director at NightDragon, the SC Awards Winner for Investor of the Year, said AI “has fundamentally changed the way we work, communicate and leverage technology” and believes its impact on the cyber market will expand as general interest funnels down to more specific enterprise applications.

“While budget today primarily goes towards categories like chips and infrastructure, we anticipate that the budget will shift over time to being spent higher up the stack. As AI becomes more pervasive in that way as part of the business workflow, we believe cyber as a market will continue to thrive,” Kyauk said.

Implementing AI strategically and responsibly

The benefit organizations can get out of AI will depend on implementing it strategically without sacrificing data security or jumping on the hype train without a plan.

“One of the consequences of rapid adoption has been ‘AI washing’ — a marketing tactic where companies exaggerate the amount of AI in their products in an effort to capitalize on the trend,” said Britton. “As IT and security leaders develop into AI leaders within their organizations, they’ll become increasingly AI savvy, able to distinguish true Ai from AI marketing hype.”

When bringing AI into the workplace, businesses will need to stay on top of any data being fed into AI applications like ChatGPT, as well as new AI-related government regulations businesses leveraging or developing AI will need to comply with, noted Tehila.

“To limit additional risk, startups and vendors are responsible for ensuring they develop AI responsibly. This means building in security protections from the start, ensuring ethical use of the technology and eliminating bias from any algorithms,” Kyauk added. “It’s important that we mitigate these risks as we continue to advance this sector; otherwise, we put future innovation and our very security at risk.”

Overall, Spergel suggested organizations should look at AI like Iron Man’s suit: capable of doing great things, but only when Tony Stark is inside piloting it.

“AI augments humans rather than replacing them for most roles. And for those types of applications, where we are able to better scale humans than we’ve ever been able to before, new products will continue to come out that are far more effective than previous generations,” Spergel concluded.