GoKawiilOrganizations are pouring more money into AI for cybersecurity without waiting for clear evidence of what they might be getting in return.
Multiple factors are driving the spending trend. These include the rapid shift of AI from experimentation into production, the growing use of AI by attackers to automate and accelerate their operations, and in some cases, fear of being left behind as other organizations race to adopt the technology.
AI Has Become Top Priority for New Security Budget Dollars
IANS and Artico recently surveyed more than 500 chief information security officers (CISOs) on their organizations' cybersecurity spending plans for 2026. The data showed average security budgets grew just 5% in 2026, from 4% in 2025, while the median budget remained flat for a second consecutive year.
Against that backdrop, 69% of CISOs identified AI as their single biggest priority for net new budget dollars, while 24% have given AI a separate security budget line. Meanwhile, 38% have made it part of their broader security spending, and another 38% fund it through IT, data, or innovation budgets.
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The survey suggested AI is more likely to reshape security teams than replace them. Some 91% of CISOs expected AI to make their teams more productive over the next 12 months, while 81% expected it to create demand for new cybersecurity roles and skills. Many CISOs expect AI to take over more repetitive tasks, while security professionals will take on higher-value work such as anomaly detection, threat investigation, and making higher-level decisions around emerging threats.
"Formally associating spending with AI in the structure of the budget is having an even larger influence on spend than expected," says Nick Kakolowski, senior research director at IANS. Giving AI its own budget line appears to be making it easier for many organizations to get more funding for AI, he says. In addition to concerns about AI rapidly changing the threat landscape, many "executive teams are afraid of falling behind on AI and putting pressure on functional leaders to embrace the technology," he says about the spending trend.
Most Pursued AI Uses Cases Are Not the Ones Delivering Most Value
The increased investments in AI for cybersecurity is happening despite some uncertainty over the value organizations might be deriving from it. Data from a recent Gartner survey of more than 1,000 IT professionals from organizations with revenues of $50 million or higher suggested a disconnect between the AI use cases organizations are pursuing most aggressively and those generating the strongest returns.
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