How AI Is Expected to Shape Cybersecurity Strategies in 2026

Artificial intelligence became a defining technology in 2025 and is expected to play an even larger role in cybersecurity in 2026.

While generative AI has introduced new challenges for information security teams, the expansion of agent-based AI systems is likely to increase operational pressure. At the same time, AI-powered security tools are advancing rapidly, offering improved threat detection and response capabilities across organizations.

With these shifts underway, cybersecurity experts are already sharing their outlook for the key trends expected in 2026.

White-hat security experts are set to strengthen their advantage against black-hat hackers.

As cybercriminals rapidly expand their use of AI to scale attacks, cybersecurity defenders are expected to regain ground in 2026, according to Nicole Reineke, senior AI product leader at N-able.

Reineke said defenders benefit from broad, collective visibility across the threat landscape. Unlike attackers, who typically operate in isolation, security vendors analyze data from thousands of intrusion attempts, allowing them to identify emerging techniques and patterns early.

This shared intelligence enables organizations to anticipate and disrupt attacks before they reach individual targets, making network-level insight a critical driver of cyber resilience in the year ahead.

Russ Ernst, chief technology officer at Blancco Technology Group, noted that AI’s ability to process large datasets improves real-time threat detection and vulnerability discovery. He said these capabilities help organizations meet growing compliance demands while reducing the likelihood of costly breaches, data leaks, and regulatory penalties.

Ernst added that integrating AI into IT asset management allows enterprises to detect unauthorized or unmanaged devices before they become attack vectors, while maintaining secure configuration standards across systems. He said broader adoption of AI-driven security tools can ease the burden on overstretched security teams, strengthen data protection, and support compliance with increasingly complex data privacy regulations.

Agentic AI is expected to fundamentally reshape DevSecOps workflows

The next phase of AI development will focus on agent-based systems that can plan, reason, and take action across multiple environments, according to Ensar Seker, chief information security officer at SOCRadar.

In DevSecOps, Seker said, these tools will move beyond detecting vulnerabilities to resolving them automatically. Agentic AI can open issue tickets, modify code repositories, apply fixes, and submit pull requests without human involvement.

He noted that this shift is already underway in prototype environments. By 2026, security teams are expected to rely more heavily on agentic AI to manage routine security issues, freeing specialists to focus on higher-risk and strategic threats.

Shadow AI is expected to proliferate widely.

Joshua Skeens, CEO of Logically, a managed security and IT solutions provider, warns that Shadow AI will continue spreading in organizations next year, putting personal data and intellectual property at risk.

As companies push for efficiency with AI, many overlook the dangers. “Employees are frustrated with broad directives to ‘use AI to do more,’ but most don’t know where to start, what to do, or what to avoid,” Skeens told TechNewsWorld.

Many organizations aren’t aware if employees are using ChatGPT, Grok, or other AI platforms, or if sensitive information is shared on them. “Detecting Shadow AI will be essential in 2026—not just to reduce risk, but to understand how AI is being used,” Skeens said.

Gene Moody, field CTO of Action1 in Houston, noted that Shadow AI goes beyond unauthorized use of popular tools. Between 2023 and 2025, teams deployed private or third-party AI models without oversight. By 2026, these hidden systems will form a major, mostly invisible attack surface.

“Sensitive data is already circulating through unsanctioned AI systems, creating compliance gaps and persistent leak channels,” Moody said. Companies will likely register AI workflows, enforce governance, and provide secure alternatives to prevent unsupervised use.

Chris Faraglia, lead solutions architect at Sembi, added that Shadow AI will persist whenever official tools feel slow or restrictive. “Embedding policy into development, testing, and chat platforms while logging usage allows teams to work quickly without increasing insider risk,” he said.

Rick Caccia, CEO of WitnessAI, predicts the first major AI-driven attack in 2026 will cause significant financial damage. This will push companies to dramatically increase security budgets, move procurement faster, and prioritize AI protection as a business-critical need.

“The need for stronger AI security will shift it from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘business-critical’ priority almost overnight,” Caccia said

Poorly guided AI agents are likely to cause a surge in operational incidents

Dan Graves, Chief Product Officer at WitnessAI, warns that in 2026, AI agents could cause major operational problems despite good intentions. “These agents won’t be malicious,” he said. “They just lack the judgment to see the full impact of their actions, leading to deleted code, system outages, and other ‘helpful’ disasters.”

Graves explained that agents are highly capable at specific tasks but lack long-term reasoning. “They may follow instructions perfectly, interpreting ‘optimize this process’ in ways no human would, revealing the gap between AI logic and human judgment,” he said.

Agentic AI will shift cyber risks and modify traditional threat tactics and procedures

Agentic AI, already a central part of many threat campaigns in 2025, is expected to further transform the cyber threat landscape in 2026, according to Alex Cox, TIME director and AI working group lead at LastPass, a Boston-based identity security company.

“Threat actors are likely to deploy agentic AI in automated intrusion attempts, run AI-driven phishing campaigns, and develop more advanced AI-enabled malware,” Cox told TechNewsWorld. “They will use AI-powered hacking agents to autonomously support their operations.”

He added that 2026 will mark a shift from passive AI use in preparatory stages to fully automated attacks, with threat actors evolving their tactics, techniques, and procedures through agentic AI.

The use of zero-day exploits is expected to rise sharply.

As AI speeds up vulnerability research, exploit creation, and testing, zero-day attacks are expected to become far more frequent in 2026, according to Brennan Lodge, fractional CISO at DeepTempo, a behavioral threat detection company in San Francisco.

“State-backed and other offensive teams will increasingly combine automated reasoning with large-scale code generation to turn subtle weaknesses into high-impact attacks,” Lodge told TechNewsWorld. “As this capability matures, zero-days will move from rare, high-effort tools to scalable offensive assets across research labs, supply chains, and cloud systems.”

He warned that defenders can no longer wait for a CVE to appear before investigating suspicious activity. “Early detection models will be essential. By the time a zero-day is visible, attackers may have already achieved their goals,” he said.

Lodge added that the growing threat will push security teams to rely on deep learning systems capable of tracking activity patterns over time, helping them identify attacker intent during initial setup and access stages—before an exploit becomes visible later in the attack chain.

AI and cybersecurity are expected to increasingly intersect.

“The biggest shift in 2026 will be cultural,” said Anurag Gurtu, CEO of Airrived. “Cybersecurity and AI will no longer be separate domains.”

He explained that security operations centers will work alongside AI agents, which will handle alerts, investigations, remediations, and continuous controls. By year’s end, AI could manage 30% or more of SOC workflows.

“This is the year AI moves from co-pilot to co-worker,” Gurtu said.