Cybersecurity executives are increasing investment in artificial intelligence as AI-driven threats grow faster than many organizations’ defenses, according to EY’s Cybersecurity Roadmap Study. The survey of
Despite a strong interest in AI-led protection, fewer than half of respondents said they were highly confident in their company’s ability to stop a major AI-related breach. 85% of organizations using AI in cybersecurity say budgets remain insufficient for current threats. EY reports a sharp shift in spending priorities toward AI tools.
The study indicates that security leaders are increasingly treating AI as a core operating layer rather than an add-on. Nearly all respondents said AI will reshape both preventive and defensive security strategies, while 97% linked future competitive strength to the maturity of agentic AI defenses. Expected adoption is set to rise across advanced persistent threat detection, fraud monitoring, identity and access management, third-party risk, privacy compliance, and deepfake defense.
Ganesh Devarajan, Americas Consulting Cyber Risk Practice Leader, said, “Cyber leaders can’t just automate yesterday’s defenses; they must move toward an AI-native posture that embeds cyber as a foundational layer of trust across enterprise AI.” EY also found that while nearly all respondents reported having an AI cybersecurity governance framework, only 20% said those structures were fully optimized and embedded into company culture.