WEF says AI is rapidly reshaping cybersecurity and boosting defender performance
The World Economic Forum says artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping cybersecurity and has become the biggest driver of change in the field. In its AI and Cyber: Empowering Defenders report, developed with KPMG, the Forum says 94% of cyber leaders identify AI as a defining force and 77% of organisations already use it in cyber operations.
The report says AI is delivering measurable gains for defenders, including lower costs, faster response and improved resilience. It says organisations that extensively leverage AI in security can reduce average breach costs by up to $1.9 million and shorten breach lifecycles by approximately 80 days.
At the same time, the report says threat actors are increasingly weaponizing AI to automate deception, generate malware and scale attacks at machine speed. It warns that enterprise attack surfaces are expanding to include hundreds of thousands of internet-facing assets, increasing the scale and complexity of cyber risk.
Akshay Joshi, head of the Centre for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum, said AI has the potential to shift the balance towards defenders. He said organisations that treat it as a strategic capability, rather than a standalone tool, will be better placed to turn growing cyber risk into resilience and competitive advantage.
Laurent Gobbi, Partner and Global Head of Cyber & Tech Risk at KPMG, said attackers are moving faster and at greater scale than ever before. The report calls on organisations to match that pace with AI as a force multiplier for cyber defence.
The report says AI's value lies in augmenting human expertise, accelerating decisions and strengthening resilience rather than automation alone. It says impact depends on a clear deployment strategy, rigorously tested use cases before scaling, and strong governance and human oversight from the outset.
