ACCORDING to Gartner, custom-built AI applications are set to cause major headaches for security teams unless they are involved in projects early, with the analyst predicting that by 2028 at least half of enterprise incident response efforts will be devoted to managing the fallout from security issues connected to these apps.
Gartner’s VP analyst Christopher Mixter warned that “AI is evolving quickly, yet many tools – especially custom-built AI applications – are being deployed before they’re fully tested,” adding that security teams still lack clear processes for handling AI-related incidents, which can prolong resolution and require far more effort.
The findings also suggest a growing role for AI-powered security tools, with a prediction that in two years’ time half of organisations would use AI security platforms to protect third-party AI service usage and custom-built AI apps. These tools are described as helping teams enforce acceptable use policies, monitor activity and apply guardrails across AI apps to protect them from prompt injection, data misuse and other threats, according to Gartner. Shifting left is recommended so controls are built in from the start, according to the article published on 18 March 2026.