Industry Research Agendas Redraw Focus Around AI-Driven Defences and Threats

Cybersecurity strategists and R&D leaders are increasingly converging around the idea that 2026 will be a turning point for how AI is used — both defensively and offensively — across digital ecosystems. Recent industry reports and expert analyses show that organisations are shifting from simple AI adoption toward mature, integrated AI defense frameworks that combine threat prediction, behavioral anomaly detection, and automated response. At the same time, attackers are leveraging AI to scale social engineering campaigns, craft context-aware phishing content, and automate exploitation with minimal human intervention. This dual-use nature of AI is reshaping research priorities, with growing emphasis on transparency, explainability, and zero-trust architectures that can adapt to rapidly evolving adversarial strategies. In addition, governance frameworks and regulatory oversight are gaining traction as essential components of any robust cybersecurity program that deploys machine learning or autonomous agents. These discussions are now central to enterprise security agendas, academic research, and national cybersecurity strategies worldwide.

14-01-2026