AI Deployments Strain Enterprise Cybersecurity: Key Challenges
Enterprise Security Faces Growing Challenges from AI Expansion
Key Findings from the Survey
CISOs and CTOs anticipate a 14% rise in their organization’s attack surface due to AI integration over the next year. A 2026 survey by NetFoundry reveals that nearly all enterprises lack comprehensive visibility into AI implementations, with 90% expressing concern over employees utilizing unauthorized AI tools beyond formal governance. The report highlights key factors driving expansion of attack surfaces through AI deployments, emphasizing the need for updated security strategies. Industries such as retail, travel, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and technology are under heightened pressure to secure AI systems. Cybersecurity leaders now rank AI-related risks as a primary concern, with only 15% of respondents confident their current tools can effectively safeguard AI environments. This lack of confidence is more pronounced among CISOs, who report lower trust in securing AI systems compared to human user protections. Historically, security investments have prioritized human-centric controls, leaving tools ill-equipped to handle AI agents, APIs, and machine-to-machine interactions. Cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging AI to accelerate the identification and exploitation of software vulnerabilities, which now account for 31% of breaches. The time between vulnerability disclosure and active exploitation has dropped to hours, while the median patching duration has extended to 43 days.
Expanding Attack Surfaces from Machine Identities
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