ACCORDING to The Darktrace Community, the State of AI Cybersecurity 2026 report finds that 87% of security professionals are seeing more AI-driven threats, with attackers at speed and scale, and threats are described as faster, more personalised, and harder to detect. The survey also reveals that 73% say AI-powered threats are having a significant impact on their organisation, and 92% agree these threats are forcing them to upgrade their defenses.
A further 87% believe AI is increasing the sophistication and success rate of malware, while another 87% report AI is significantly raising the workload of their security operations teams. The findings also show that confidence is uneven, with 46% of security leaders now feeling inadequately prepared to protect their organisations amidst the current threat landscape, and stress and overwhelm are widespread across the profession.
The blog notes that these challenges persist despite ongoing security investments, highlighting the need for integrated, adaptive approaches such as Darktrace’s Self-Learning AI that learns normal organisational patterns to detect novel threats. The report was published on 28 April 2026.