ACCORDING to Digital[.]ai, the frequency of cyber-attacks on customer-facing mobile apps has risen rapidly as AI lowers barriers for threat actors. The 2026 Application Security Threat Report, published on 19 May 2026, claims 87% of monitored apps faced attacks in 2026, up from 55% in 2022. Financial services (91%), automotive (91%) and medical device apps (86%) were the most frequently targeted, potentially putting personal finances, vehicles and health data at risk.
Digital[.]ai said agentic AI is enabling relatively low-skilled threat actors to achieve in just a few hours what may have taken specialist teams weeks in the past, by speeding up code inspection, exploit generation and malware adaptation. The firm noted that in 2026 the gap between iOS and Android attacks narrowed, with 86% of iOS apps attacked compared with 89% of Android apps, and that AI-assisted reverse engineering is making Apple’s platform a more popular target for attackers.