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Dec 30

AI Security market 2025 funding data, top startups, and the ServiceNow factor

ServiceNow dropped $11.6 billion on security acquisitions in 2025 alone. Armis for $7.75 billion. Moveworks for $2.85 billion. Veza for roughly $1 billion. In 2025, just one company, ServiceNow, spent more on acquiring security startups than 175 startups raised in two years. Meanwhile, the entire AI security startup ecosystem raised $8.5 billion across 175 companies over 24 months. That single data point should reshape how security leaders think about vendor consolidation and how AI builders think about their exit paths.

I analyzed Crunchbase data covering every AI security startup that raised Series A, B, or C funding between January 2024 and December 2025. The patterns are striking.

The acceleration is real

Q1 2024: $274 million across 8 deals. Q4 2025: $2.17 billion across 28 deals. That’s 8x growth in quarterly funding over two years.

The full-year numbers tell the story more clearly. 2024 saw $2.16 billion in total funding. 2025 hit $6.34 billion, nearly tripling. Average deal sizes jumped from $34 million to $54 million. This isn’t a gentle upward trend. The market is restructuring in real time.

Where the money flows

Network and Zero Trust infrastructure captured $1.9 billion across 44 companies. Tailscale‘s $161 million Series C reflects what enterprises already know. VPN architectures are dying. Identity-based access is replacing them.

Threat Detection and SOC automation drew $1.2 billion across 28 companies. 7AI‘s $130 million Series A stands out as one of the largest A funding rounds in this category. The bet: AI agents can handle the full security operations lifecycle at a scale human analysts cannot match.

Identity and Access Management pulled $990 million. But here’s what matters: that money went to just 6 companies. Saviynt‘s $700 million Series B dominates the category. When one company captures 71% of a category’s funding at Series B, investors see platform consolidation ahead. ServiceNow’s Veza acquisition, three weeks later, validated that thesis.

Insights into deal sizes

Median tells a different story from average deal sizes. Series A median: $20 million. Series A average: $28 million. The gap widens at later stages. Series C median: $85 million. Series C average: $119 million.

Translation: mega-deals skew the data significantly. Eighteen companies raised $100 million or more. Those 18 deals represent 10% of companies but 40% of total funding. For every Saviynt raising $700 million, dozens of startups are raising $15-25 million Series A rounds.

The AI/LLM security gap

Only 13 companies focus specifically on securing AI systems, LLMs, and agentic applications. Total funding: $414 million. That’s less than 5% of the $8.5 billion total. For context: ServiceNow paid more for Veza alone than the entire AI/LLM security category raised in two years.

The players building in this space:

• Noma Security ($100M, Series B). Unified AI and agent security platform.

• Credo AI ($21M, Series B). AI governance and compliance automation.

• Lakera ($20M, Series A). Real-time GenAI security against LLM vulnerabilities.

• Prompt Security ($18M, Series A). Enterprise generative AI adoption platform.

• GetReal Security ($17.5M, Series A). Deepfake and AI-generated impersonation defense.

• Jericho Security ($15M, Series A). Training against generative AI-powered attacks.

Enterprises are deploying AI systems at unprecedented rates. Shadow AI breaches cost $4.63 million per incident. That’s $670,000 more than standard breaches, according to IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report. Model Context Protocol vulnerabilities. Prompt injection attacks. Data exfiltration through AI assistants. The attack surface expands while protection lags.

Either these 13 companies scale rapidly, established players acquire their way into the space, or CISOs face a protection gap without commercial solutions.

How spending breaks out geographically

The U.S. captured $6.1 billion across 119 companies. That’s 71% of total funding. Israel remains the second hub: 15 companies, $738 million. Germany, the UK, and Canada trail with single-digit percentages.

Within the U.S., California dominates: $2.7 billion across 62 companies. That’s more than all non-U.S. markets combined ($2.4 billion). Texas ($865M), New York ($667M), and Colorado ($295M) round out the top states.

The concentration creates vendor risk. Regulatory fragmentation between the U.S. and EU markets. Geopolitical tensions affecting Israeli companies. Single-region dependency in security infrastructure. These are fundamental considerations for enterprise security architects.

ServiceNow’s acquisitions signal large-scale consolidation

ServiceNow’s 2025 acquisition spree warrants its own analysis. Armis brings cyber-physical security and OT/IoT visibility. Moveworks adds agentic AI capabilities. Veza delivers identity security for the AI era. The company calls it an “AI control tower.” A unified security stack that sees, decides, and acts across the entire technology footprint.

The driver: ServiceNow’s Security and Risk business crossed $1 billion in annual contract value in Q3 2025. They expect Armis alone to triple their market opportunity. When a platform vendor invests $11.6 billion in its own security workflows, point solutions become acquisition targets or competitors.

What this means for 2026

For security leaders: Map your vendor portfolio against both funding momentum and M&A activity. Startups with strong backing will survive consolidation. Others won’t. Audit your AI deployment pipeline against available protections. The gap between AI adoption and AI security is widening. Accelerate zero-trust adoption while solutions mature.

For AI builders: Security isn’t a feature to add later. The $414 million flowing into AI/LLM security represents smart money recognizing that unprotected AI systems are enterprise liabilities. Build with guardrails or build vulnerabilities.

Analysis based on Crunchbase data covering 175 AI security startups that raised Series A, B, or C funding between January 2024 and December 2025. ServiceNow acquisition data from the company’s press releases dated December 2025.

Dec 22

Data readiness and security are driving AI’s $4.7 trillion run

Gartner Projects $4.7 Trillion AI Market by 2029 as Security and Data Drive Growth

Gartner’s most comprehensive AI spending forecast reveals the fundamental growth catalysts. AI-ready data predicted to deliver a 155% CAGR. Cybersecurity at 74%. Agentic capabilities crossing 50% of software spend by 2028.

Infrastructure gets the headlines. Hyperscalers are spending over $300 billion on data centers in 2025. McKinsey projects $5.2 trillion in data center investment by 2030. NVIDIA Blackwell deployments are driving 76% growth in accelerated server spending.

Gartner’s newly released Forecast Analysis: AI Spending, 4Q25 (December 17, 2025) tells a different story about where the acceleration is happening. Global AI spending reaches $1.8 trillion in 2025 and $4.7 trillion by 2029 at 33% CAGR. The growth catalysts:

  • AI Data. 155.4% CAGR. Spending increases 7x as enterprises recognize AI-ready data is non-negotiable for scaling.
  • AI Cybersecurity. 73.9% CAGR. From $26 billion to $172 billion. Over 50% of successful AI agent attacks will exploit prompt injection through 2029.
  • AI Models. 67.7% CAGR. Reasoning models underpin 70%+ of agentic AI applications by 2029.
  • AI Software. 47.0% CAGR. Agentic capabilities cross 50% of application software spend by the end of 2028. Non-agentic spending declines starting in 2027.

Infrastructure dominates absolute spending ($965 billion in 2025, growing to $2.25 trillion by 2029). At 29.2% CAGR, it’s the slower-growth segment. The acceleration is in data, security, and agentic capabilities.

The infrastructure buildout in context

The hyperscalers are building at a pace that strains global power grids. Dell’Oro Group’s Q2 2025 analysis shows worldwide data center capex up 43% year-over-year, with accelerated server spending surging 76% on NVIDIA Blackwell deployments. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft are collectively spending over $300 billion on data center infrastructure in 2025. CreditSights estimates aggregate hyperscaler capex reaches $602 billion in 2026, with approximately 75% earmarked for AI.

Gartner’s forecast aligns with infrastructure volume. AI-optimized server spending jumps 49% in 2026, representing 17% of total AI spending. GPUs account for over 90% of AI-optimized server spending on training throughout the forecast period. Infrastructure is table stakes. The differentiation is elsewhere.

Gartner’s bubble chart mapping 2026 growth rate (X-axis) against 2024-2029 CAGR (Y-axis), with bubble size representing 2025 spending. AI Data sits alone in the upper right quadrant. AI Cybersecurity and AI Models cluster at 70%+ CAGR. AI Infrastructure anchors the center as the dominant bubble. Source: Gartner Forecast Analysis: AI Spending, 4Q25, December 2025.

Gartner’s AI spending forecast by market, 2024-2029

The maturity gap

McKinsey’s 2025 State of AI survey explains why growth rates matter more than absolute spending for most organizations. 88% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, up from 78% a year ago. Only 6% qualify as “AI high performers”, capturing meaningful enterprise-wide financial impact. Only 1% describe themselves as “mature” in AI deployment. Gartner’s CFO survey found just 11% of finance leaders from organizations implementing AI reported seeing actual financial returns.

The bottleneck is rarely compute. Gartner identifies three categories of readiness: infrastructure, data, and human. For every 100 days of AI implementation, 25 or more days may be consumed solely by change management and workforce resistance. Sharing work tasks with an AI agent, trusting results, and managing handoffs. That’s a fundamental shift in how employees work.

What the growth rates signal

AI cybersecurity’s 73.9% CAGR reflects a threat model shift. Security teams are spending because AI agents introduce attack surfaces that traditional security architectures weren’t designed to address. Gartner projects that over 50% of successful attacks against AI agents will exploit access control issues via prompt injection through 2029. By 2028, over 75% of enterprises will use AI-amplified cybersecurity products for most use cases, up from less than 25% in 2025.

AI data’s 155.4% CAGR signals enterprises are finally investing in foundations. The smallest segment by absolute spending is the fastest-growing because organizations scaling beyond pilots are discovering that AI-ready data isn’t optional. Labeled, annotated, quality-checked. By 2029, 61% of data integration software spend will focus on delivering GenAI-ready data, up from 8% in 2025. Synthetic data becomes dominant. 77% of data used for LLM training will be synthetic by 2029, up from 4% in 2025.

Agentic AI is reshaping software economics. By the end of 2028, software with agentic capabilities crosses 50% of total application software spend, up from 2% in 2024. Starting in 2027, non-agentic software spending declines. Investment in reasoning models underpins 70%+ of agentic AI applications by 2029. Open-source agentic frameworks will power more than 75% of enterprise AI agent deployments by 2028, eroding proprietary platform pricing power.

The inference shift is underway. By 2029, 66% of AI-optimized IaaS spending supports inference, not training. The balance shifts as embedded fine-tuned models become the norm in production applications.

Forecast assumptions by segment

AI Services. By 2029, 50% of all AI projects moving into production will be GenAI-centric, up from 12% in 2025. POC abandonment rates improve from 60% in 2024 to 35% in 2029. Specialized AI services command 20-30% price premiums.

AI Software. From 2027, spending on software without agentic capabilities starts declining. By 2027, one-third of agentic AI implementations will use combinations of agents with different skills for complex tasks.

AI Models. Starting in 2027, the shift toward in-house domain-specific language models constrains new spending in the specialized model market. Open-source model adoption erodes proprietary pricing power through 2029.

AI Platforms. By 2029, over 60% of enterprises will adopt AI agent development platforms to automate complex workflows. By 2030, enterprise application portfolios will include 40% custom applications built using AI-native development platforms, up from 2% in 2025.

AI Infrastructure. Export restrictions keep Chinese ASPs at about 50% of North American levels throughout the forecast. By 2026, NVL72 will become the de facto standard for large clusters. By the end of 2027, all hyperscalers will have reaffirmed Ethernet as their primary networking choice for AI workloads.

Devices. By 2029, more than 99% of PC microprocessors will have integrated on-device AI functionality, up from 15% in 2024. By 2027, efficient small language models will enable advanced GenAI to run locally on smartphones without cloud reliance.

The capital flow

The 2026 Gartner CIO Survey found GenAI and traditional AI among the most common technology areas selected for funding increases. 84% and 81% respectively. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. VC deal value went to AI companies in the first three quarters of 2025.

By 2027, the majority of AI buyers will define business outcomes from project launch. The market matures from technology-first experimentation to outcome-driven deployment. That shift from supply-push to demand-pull separates organizations capturing value from those still running pilots.

The infrastructure buildout continues. The growth signal is clear. Data readiness, security architecture, and agentic capabilities are where the acceleration is happening.

Nov 26

15 fastest-growing security categories in Gartner’s 3Q25 Information Security Forecast

15 fastest-growing security categories in Gartner's 3Q25 Information Security Forecast

Cloud Security Posture Management is growing at a 31.23% CAGR. Zero Trust Network Access at 23.25%. Threat Intelligence at 22.17%. The overall security market? Just 10.55%. Fifteen categories are outpacing the market by two to three times, collectively capturing $106 billion in new spending by 2029. Enterprise security budgets aren’t just expanding. They’re being redirected.

And the driver? Brutally simple.

Gartner estimates 99% of cloud security failures through 2025 will be the customer’s fault, primarily due to misconfigurations. Organizations are responding by investing aggressively in technologies that automate what humans simply can’t manage manually across hundreds of cloud accounts, thousands of APIs, and millions of potential attack vectors.

What these growth rates say about Gartner’s view of the market 

These fifteen categories represent $106.4 billion in new spending by 2029, growing from today’s baseline. What do they have in common? Three characteristics that explain why enterprises are pouring money into them:

  • Automation at Scale. Every high-growth category automates processes that break when done manually, whether it’s scanning cloud configurations, managing consent across jurisdictions, or detecting behavioral anomalies in network traffic. There’s no other way to keep pace.
  • Proactive vs. Reactive. These technologies prevent problems rather than clean up after them. CSPM catches misconfigurations before breaches. ZTNA eliminates the attack surface that VPNs create. Tokenization protects data even if systems are compromised. Security teams are finally getting ahead of the threat curve instead of playing catch-up.
  • Measurable ROI. IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report shows organizations using AI and automation extensively save $1.9 million per breach and reduce breach lifecycle by 80 days. With U.S. breach costs hitting $10.22 million, these investments pay for themselves with a single prevented incident.

15 fastest-growing security categories in Gartner's 3Q25 Information Security Forecast

The 15 categories reshaping security architecture

1. Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) | 31.23% CAGR | $2.5B → $13.0B

CSPM tools continuously scan infrastructure across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. With 82% of misconfigurations caused by human error and organizations managing 100+ cloud accounts, CSPM automates what’s mathematically impossible to do manually. The market will reach $15.6 billion by 2032.

2. Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) | 25.82% CAGR | $1.5B → $5.8B

Here’s a reality check. Enterprises average 112 SaaS applications, but shadow IT, or unauthorized apps, accounts for 42% of all applications. IT remains unaware of one-third of the apps on its networks. The damage? 65% of shadow IT companies suffer data loss, and 52% experience breaches. CASBs transform this chaos into visibility and control.

3. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) | 23.25% CAGR | $1.6B → $5.6B

ZTNA kills the VPN model. Instead of network access, it provides application-specific connections verified for every request. Gartner predicts 70% of new remote access deployments will use ZTNA by 2025. With 65% of companies planning to replace VPNs, this shift represents a wholesale rethinking of secure access. The perimeter-based model is dying. Good riddance.

4. Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) | 22.78% CAGR | $3.9B → $13.5B

CWPP platforms secure everything from traditional VMs to containers that exist for milliseconds. Legacy endpoint security can’t protect ephemeral containers or serverless functions—it wasn’t designed for workloads that appear and disappear in seconds. The shift to microservices demands purpose-built security.

5. Consent and Preference Management | 22.39% CAGR | $0.5B → $1.7B

GDPR fines reached €5.88 billion by January 2025, according to the DLA Piper GDPR Fines and Data Breach Survey. California’s CCPA penalties continue climbing; the California Privacy Protection Agency fined Todd Snyder $345,178 for inadequate opt-out and privacy request processes. Manual handling can’t meet regulatory deadlines. Automation prevents massive fines.

6. Threat Intelligence | 22.17% CAGR | $1.8B → $5.8B

IBM data shows threat intelligence reduces detection and escalation costs by $1.63 million while cutting incidents by 30%. Modern platforms aggregate data about bad actors and vulnerabilities, transforming raw threat data into automated responses across security stacks. The days of threat feeds sitting in dashboards, unused, are over.

7. Subject Rights Request Automation | 16.53% CAGR | $0.8B → $2.1B

When users demand “delete my data,” these platforms automate the process across all systems. Manual handling doesn’t scale, not when you’re managing requests across multiple jurisdictions with different requirements and tight deadlines.

8. Tokenization | 14.26% CAGR | $1.0B → $2.2B

Tokenization replaces sensitive data with meaningless tokens that can’t be mathematically reversed. Why the urgency now? NIST standardized quantum-resistant algorithms, including ML-KEM (formerly CRYSTALS-Kyber), in August 2024. Organizations are preparing for quantum threats expected within five to ten years.

9. Network Detection and Response (NDR) | 14.05% CAGR | $1.6B → $3.5B

NDR platforms use AI to establish behavioral baselines and detect anomalies signaling compromise. Here’s the mindset shift: rather than hoping to prevent all attacks, innovative organizations invest in rapid detection that minimizes damage when sophisticated attackers inevitably get through. Prevention isn’t enough anymore.

10. Vulnerability Assessment | 13.98% CAGR | $2.6B → $5.7B

Cloud infrastructure changes constantly. Quarterly scans are obsolete before they finish. Modern platforms provide continuous scanning in CI/CD pipelines, prioritizing based on real-world exploit data. DevOps teams deploying daily need vulnerability detection that keeps pace. Anything less is theater.

11. Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) | 13.61% CAGR | $13.5B → $29.1B

The largest category doubles to $29.1 billion as ransomware attacks surge. According to Cyble analysis cited by TechTarget, U.S. ransomware attacks increased by 149% year-over-year in the first five weeks of 2025. Manufacturing led targets with 638 attacks in 2023, per Statista data compiled by Fortinet. Next-gen EPP uses behavioral analytics to stop ransomware before encryption begins—catching what traditional antivirus misses.

12. Secure Web Gateway (SWG) | 13.26% CAGR | $3.3B → $7.0B

Malicious sites appear and disappear in hours. Cloud-delivered SWGs update threat intelligence in real-time, protecting remote workers wherever they connect. Integration with ZTNA creates comprehensive security that follows users across devices and locations. The old perimeter? It no longer exists.

13. Web Application Firewalls (WAF) | 11.93% CAGR | $2.0B → $3.8B

Organizations expose hundreds of APIs, each a potential attack vector. Traditional network firewalls can’t inspect application-layer attacks. Modern WAFs use machine learning to distinguish legitimate users from attackers without blocking customers. Getting that balance right is harder than it sounds.

14. Encryption | 11.90% CAGR | $1.0B → $2.0B

NIST’s standardization of quantum-resistant algorithms signals urgency. Attackers already practice “harvest now, decrypt later”—collecting encrypted data for future quantum decryption. Organizations must transition to post-quantum cryptography now, as full integration takes years. This isn’t theoretical risk anymore.

15. Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) | 11.74% CAGR | $5.8B → $11.3B

AI transforms SIEM from reactive to proactive. Organizations using AI-powered automation save $1.9 million per breach, according to IBM’s newsroom. Machine learning models identify attack patterns and detect zero-day threats before signatures exist, turning security operations into a competitive advantage.

The Investment Thesis behind the numbers

These growth rates reflect three converging realities:

  • Cloud Complexity Is Exponential. With 79% of organizations using multiple cloud providers and managing hundreds of accounts, manual security is mathematically impossible. The 31.23% CAGR for CSPM isn’t optimism, it’s survival.
  • AI Changes Everything. Shadow AI breaches cost $4.63 million, $670,000 more than standard incidents. But AI also powers the defense, with automated security tools reducing breach lifecycles by 80 days. The same technology that creates vulnerabilities offers the best defense.
  • Compliance Costs Are Skyrocketing. Between GDPR, CCPA, and emerging regulations, manual compliance is a liability that grows daily. Automation platforms turn regulatory requirements into competitive advantages.

The Bottom Line

The organizations winning this race aren’t those with the most significant security budgets; they’re those investing in the right categories at the right time. These fifteen segments aren’t just growing fast; they’re defining what modern security architecture looks like.

The message from Gartner’s data is unambiguous: security spending is shifting from reactive to proactive, from manual to automated, from perimeter-based to zero-trust. Organizations still relying on legacy approaches aren’t just falling behind; they’re accepting risks that the market has already priced as unacceptable.

Source: Gartner Information Security Forecast 3Q25 Update (Document G00839334), showing overall market growth from $215.8B (2025) to $322.2B (2029) at 10.55% CAGR

Nov 10

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

Bottom line: Identity security stands at an unprecedented crossroads, with machine identities creating greater complexity and potential chaos every security professional needs to plan for.

At Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit, Merritt Maxim, VP and Research Director at Forrester, delivered critical insights highlighting the escalating threats shaping identity security’s evolution. CISOs and security leaders find themselves navigating surging threats driven by generative AI, the rapid proliferation of non-human identities, and outdated IAM infrastructures originally designed solely for compliance.  Maxim emphasized a pressing urgency: identity strategies must adapt or risk catastrophic breaches and compliance failures.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the top 10 insights from Forrester’s Summit, including the specific slides from Maxim’s presentation and deeper insights from Forrester’s latest data:

1. Identity Security Budgets Accelerate Toward $27.5B by 2029

IAM investment is growing explosively, set to nearly double from $13.4 billion in 2024 to $27.5 billion by 2029, driven by the escalating complexity and severity of identity-related threats such as AI-driven deepfakes, sophisticated supply-chain attacks, and rampant cloud misconfigurations. This positions IAM as cybersecurity’s third fastest-growing segment, underscoring identity security as a business-critical imperative.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

2. Hybrid IAM Still Dominates—77% Keep On-Premise Components

Despite the relentless push to the cloud, 77% of organizations continue relying on hybrid IAM deployments due to legacy infrastructure and regulatory constraints. Fully cloud-based identity management remains a distant reality, with only 9% fully transitioned. Maxim stressed hybrid IAM’s persistence, highlighting the necessity for seamless integration capabilities between on-premises systems and cloud IAM platforms.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

3. Third-party Risk Matches Compliance as a Top IAM Driver

Forrester revealed a pivotal shift: managing third-party identities (32%) is now equally critical as regulatory compliance (32%) in driving IAM investments. High-profile breaches at Okta and CyberArk underscore vulnerabilities introduced by third-party identities, necessitating robust governance models that go beyond basic compliance checklists.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

4. Static Entitlements Are Obsolete; Zero Standing Privilege Is Now Mandatory

The static entitlement model—assigning privileges during onboarding—is officially outdated. Forrester highlighted Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) architectures as the definitive new standard, utilizing the Continuous Access Evaluation Protocol (CAEP) to dynamically assign permissions at runtime. This strategy mitigates rampant privilege sprawl, dramatically reducing attack surfaces.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

5. Identity Management Converges Across Security, Marketing, and CX

Enterprises are rapidly integrating fragmented identity management systems across marketing, customer experience (CX), fraud prevention, and security. Maxim emphasized that businesses consolidating these functions significantly improve detection speed, minimize breaches, and enhance end-user experience. Leveraging customer preference and security data together is becoming a strategic advantage.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

6. Vendor Consolidation Radically Reshapes IAM Markets

IAM vendor consolidation accelerated significantly, highlighted by major moves such as Palo Alto Networks acquiring CyberArk, Ping Identity merging with ForgeRock, and CrowdStrike purchasing Adaptive Shield. Enterprises increasingly demand integrated identity platforms combining PAM, IGA, and Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR), driving these high-profile acquisitions.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

7. Generative AI Exacerbates Identity Threats but Offers Transformational Defenses

Generative AI escalates identity threats dramatically through enhanced phishing and sophisticated deepfake impersonations. Conversely, GenAI’s defensive capabilities are equally transformative, enabling automated identity threat detection, rapid response, and real-time entitlement adjustments. Maxim described these dual dynamics as essential to future IAM strategies.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

8. Machine Identities Are a Critical Emerging Attack Vector

The explosive growth in non-human identities (IoT, APIs, AI agents) vastly expands attack surfaces. Enterprises urgently need automated platforms from vendors like CyberArk, Venafi, and HashiCorp to manage this surge. Forrester highlighted machine identities as a rapidly intensifying risk requiring immediate attention and robust governance.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

9. Phishing-Resistant MFA Is Dangerously Under-Deployed

Alarmingly, only 21% of companies deploy phishing-resistant MFA after breaches, despite the increasing sophistication of MFA-bypass attacks. Forrester insists enterprises must urgently adopt solutions like FIDO2 and WebAuthn. Maxim warned that neglecting these standards leaves companies dangerously exposed to credential-based compromises.

Top 10 Identity Security Insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit

10. Context-Aware IAM Becomes a Real-time Security Necessity

Static IAM fails against machine-speed threats. Context-aware IAM, powered by dynamic authorization, continuously assesses real-time user behavior, device posture, and threat intel. Forrester identifies this adaptive approach as critical, turning identity from a passive gatekeeper to a proactive defender, which is essential for stopping attacks before damage occurs

10. Context‑Aware IAM Defines the Future of Access Control Best Slide: Slide 21 – Runtime Context and Adaptive IAM Model The next generation of IAM is contextual, continuous, and AI‑assisted  Convergence, Consolidation, And… . Static permissions are being replaced with adaptive models that evaluate risk in real time — factoring in behavioral biometrics, device posture, and environmental signals. This “runtime context” turns identity from a passive gatekeeper into an active defender capable of making split‑second decisions as threats unfold.

Bottom Line: Adaptive identity security defines enterprise survival

Identity security has become synonymous with enterprise survival. Merritt Maxim’s compelling insights from Forrester’s 2025 Security & Risk Summit underscore a new identity imperative: convergence, consolidation, and context must drive strategic identity transformations. Following Forrester’s lead, enterprises must prioritize investment in dynamic Zero Standing Privilege architectures, integrated identity platforms, generative AI-enabled threat response, robust machine identity management, and phishing-resistant MFA immediately.  The future of enterprise resilience hinges directly on evolving identity security today.

Nov 3

Top 10 insights from Forrester’s 2026 Cybersecurity Budget Report

Top 10 Insights from Forrester’s 2026 Cybersecurity Budget Report

“With volatility now the norm, security and risk leaders need practical guidance on managing existing spending and new budgetary necessities,” states Forrester’s 2026 Budget Planning Guide.

The research firm’s planning guide for next year provides security leaders with new insights into how their clients are allocating budgets, which gives a helpful overview of the next 12 months of cybersecurity spending.

Implicit in the guide is the need for new technologies that enable organizations to be more adaptive to threats and take action on them before they become breaches. There’s also a strong focus on getting a head start on new technologies, anticipating the severity of threats new developments in AI, generative AI (genAI), deepfakes, and all other forms of weaponized technologies can pose to an organization.

Software is a solid 40% of cybersecurity spending, exceeding hardware at 15.8%, outsourcing at 15% and surpassing personnel costs at 29% by 11 percentage points. Meanwhile, security leaders face escalating threats, with generative AI attacks executing in milliseconds, a stark contrast to the average Mean Time to Identify (MTTI) of 181 days, according to IBM’s latest Cost of a Data Breach Report.

A fast-changing threatscape is changing spending priorities

Three converging threats are flipping cybersecurity on its head. What once protected organizations is now working against them. Generative AI (gen AI) is enabling attackers to craft 10,000 personalized phishing emails per minute using scraped LinkedIn profiles and corporate communications. NIST’s 2030 quantum deadline threatens retroactive decryption of $425 billion in currently protected data. Deepfake fraud that surged 3,000% in 2024 now bypasses biometric authentication in 97% of attempts, forcing security leaders to reimagine defensive architectures fundamentally.

Top ten insights from Forrester’s 2026 cybersecurity budget benchmarks

1.     Software now claims 40% of cybersecurity budgets, surpassing personnel spend. Forrester’s budget planning guide reports that software now accounts for approximately 40.2% of cybersecurity spending, eclipsing combined hardware and outsourcing budgets. It’s noteworthy that software spending is surpassing personnel costs by 11 percentage points.

Top 10 insights from Forrester’s 2026 Cybersecurity Budget Report
Source: Forrester Budget Planning Guide 2026: Security and Risk

2. Security budgets are accelerating, with 55% of global security and tech leaders forecasting significant increases next year. A robust 15% anticipate their budgets jumping more than 10%, and another 40% project hikes between 5% and 10%. Regional outlooks vary sharply: APAC is most bullish, with 22% expecting double-digit growth, compared to a cautious 9% in North America and just 12% in EMEA. However, nearly half (45%) remain reserved; 30% predict minimal budget bumps of 1%–4% or barely keeping pace with inflation, while another 10% expectSource: Forrester Budget Planning Guide 2026: Security and Risk no change, and 5% foresee cuts.

Top 10 insights from Forrester’s 2026 Cybersecurity Budget Report
Source: Forrester Budget Planning Guide 2026: Security and Risk

3. Cloud security, on-prem tech, and security awareness training are set to lead cybersecurity spending in 2026. Decision-makers are doubling down on cloud security, with 12% boosting budgets in this area by 10% or more, 11% doing the same for new on-premises solutions, and another 10% ramping up security awareness programs. Notably, investments in on-premises security technology appear twice among the top priorities, as 36% plan at least a 5% increase for both new deployments and upgrades to existing infrastructure. The numbers reflect an uneven global adoption of cloud strategies, driven by persistent concerns around cost, security, and data sovereignty. APAC is exceptionally bullish. 78% of companies there plan increased spending on new on-prem security, outpacing EMEA by 10% and North America by 8%.

Top 10 insights from Forrester’s 2026 Cybersecurity Budget Report
Source: Forrester Budget Planning Guide 2026: Security and Risk

4. Forrester recommends that security leaders broaden AI and ML security throughout the enterprise in 2026 as generative AI moves from standalone apps to essential business systems. Productivity suites, CRM platforms, and service tools now embed genAI natively, transforming workflows and widening potential attack surfaces. Enterprises urgently need comprehensive protection across AI models, data, applications, and user identities to counter risks such as model vulnerabilities, data leakage, and prompt jailbreaking. Hyperscalers like Google Cloud and Microsoft are responding quickly, while cybersecurity incumbents, notably Palo Alto Networks with its Protect AI acquisition, actively expand their footprint. Meanwhile, innovative startups, including Knostic and CalypsoAI, both featured at RSA’s Innovation Sandbox, target niche but critical genAI security gaps. Enterprises investing strategically now will securely scale genAI deployments and establish a clear competitive advantage.

5. Standalone SSE spending will sharply decline in 2026 as enterprises shift to unified SASE platforms, streamlining security operations and accelerating Zero Trust initiatives. Initially positioned to fill security gaps left by SD-WAN deployments and the surge in remote work, standalone SSE and isolated ZTNA solutions have now reached their functional limits. Leading companies increasingly adopt integrated platforms like Cato Networks’ cloud-native SASE, which consolidates SD-WAN, ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and firewall capabilities within a single, unified framework. As I’ve noted in VentureBeat, CISOs who pivot to unified SASE platforms benefit from simpler integration, superior AI-driven threat detection, and significant operational efficiencies that isolated solutions cannot deliver. Organizations proactively embracing integrated SASE from providers like Cato Networks will immediately enhance security resilience, improve operational agility, and significantly reduce vendor complexity.

6. Forrester predicts that by 2026, security leaders will seize a critical advantage by accelerating the adoption of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). With NIST’s landmark release of three core PQC standards in August 2024, organizations now have clear guidance to protect their data and applications against emerging quantum threats. Most governments align with NIST timelines, targeting legacy encryption deprecation by 2030, while Australia’s ASD urges adoption of approved PQC algorithms even sooner. Enterprises should immediately focus efforts on securing their most sensitive asymmetric cryptography, covering data at rest, data in transit, and data actively used within applications. Comprehensive cryptographic discovery and inventory tools provide the visibility required to assess readiness. Strategic partnerships with cryptoagility innovators, including Entrust, IBM, Keyfactor, Palo Alto Networks, QuSecure, SandboxAQ, and Thales, enable organizations to define a clear, secure migration path. Organizations acting decisively now will confidently navigate the quantum transition and fortify their competitive edge.

7. Machine identity management will become essential by 2026 as automated identities multiply rapidly across the IT infrastructure. Apps, AI agents, IoT devices, containers, cloud environments, and infrastructure scripts now generate identities faster than humans can manually track or manage. Enterprises urgently require solutions capable of managing these identities throughout their lifecycle, automating key rotations, and enforcing role-based access. Leading vendors, including Akeyless, BeyondTrust, CyberArk, Delinea, HashiCorp, Keyfactor, AppViewX, and emerging startups like Aembit, Astrix, Clutch, Entro, and Oasis Security, offer robust platforms to meet this challenge.

8. There will be a significant reallocation away from standalone interactive application security testing (IAST) in 2026, as operational hurdles continue to limit adoption. Originally designed to blend the runtime accuracy of dynamic application security testing (DAST) with static application security testing’s (SAST) code-level insights, standalone IAST has proven overly complex. Forrester recommends shifting budgets toward integrated IAST and DAST platforms, such as those from Invicti and HCLSoftware, that simplify deployment. Alternatively, APIs, microservices, and containers provide more transparent and consistent returns.

9. Consolidation of endpoint security and SIEM tools will accelerate in 2026. As extended detection and response (XDR) platforms gain momentum, security leaders have a clear opportunity to reduce agent sprawl, improve analyst efficiency, and lower the total cost of ownership. Vendors, including Microsoft, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks, now embed critical SIEM functions such as detection, correlation, third-party data ingestion (particularly from cloud, identity, and email), and response directly within their XDR offerings. While these integrated solutions currently don’t fully match standalone security analytics platforms, they deliver compelling advantages: simplified deployments, centralized threat context, and measurable operational savings. Organizations consolidating around unified XDR solutions today will streamline security operations and achieve faster, higher-quality threat detection.

10. By 2026, rapidly evolving generative AI will make deepfakes virtually indistinguishable from authentic media, rendering simplistic identity checks obsolete. Enterprises must proactively deploy sophisticated detection platforms using advanced ensemble modeling—spectral analysis, image artifacts, skin tone consistency, lighting anomalies, audio echo patterns, and device reputation, to ensure trusted employee verification and transaction authentication. Vendors such as GetReal Security, Sensity, and Reality Defender already offer real-time risk scoring, transparent reasoning, and integrated case management. Early adopters will safeguard identity security, sustain customer trust, and remain resilient against future deepfake threats.

Oct 29

Gartner: 60% of CISOs are piloting GenAI, but only 20% see results

Made with Imagen

The global threatscape is becoming dominated by all forms of weaponized LLMs, AI, and conversational agents, all aimed at launching lethal attacks that cripple companies and entire supply chains in minutes.

Nation‑state actors and organized eCrime groups now use artificial intelligence, including generative AI (GenAI), to automate reconnaissance, weaponize access, and strike faster than most defenses can respond. To keep pace, enterprises and the CISOs leading them are turning to GenAI as a defensive multiplier.

 CISOs are remaining optimistic

Gartner’s latest research quantifies that adoption is accelerating, but measurable results remain elusive. Approximately 60 % of organizations are piloting or planning GenAI cybersecurity initiatives. Only 20% of security leaders say these programs have delivered beneficial outcomes so far. These figures are from the research firm’s recent research note, What GenAI Use Cases Are Organizations Pursuing Within Cybersecurity? published earlier this month. Forrester predicts that the first agentic AI breach will happen in 2026.

Yet, despite early hurdles, cybersecurity leaders remain optimistic. Nearly every CISO I’ve spoken with sees GenAI as pivotal for transforming threat detection, proactive hunting, rapid incident response, and extracting actionable insights from terabytes of telemetry data streaming from endpoints and events. They recognize GenAI as crucial to decoding adversary tradecraft, particularly as identity-based threats and weaponized machine-learning attacks accelerate, reshaping the global threatscape in real time.

Key takeaways

  • Code Analysis leads the pack. GenAI‑assisted code analysis is the most mature use case: 22% of enterprises use it today, and another 30% are piloting it. It addresses a persistent gap, as 69% of software‑engineering leaders cite insecure code remediation as a critical skills bottleneck.
  • GenAI shows potential in helping SOC teams spot vulnerabilities faster. Currently, 21% of organizations actively leverage GenAI to enhance vulnerability detection and remediation, with another 26% piloting these capabilities. Adoption is driven by GenAI’s ability to automate vulnerability identification and prioritize remediation workflows, addressing longstanding security bottlenecks and resource constraints. Despite intense interest, widespread implementation remains challenged by integration complexity and skepticism about AI-generated accuracy, emphasizing the need for incremental deployment aligned with existing cybersecurity metrics.
  • CISOs Shift from Ambition to Execution Gartner finds that the leaders gaining traction are those adopting “bite‑sized” implementations or use cases that fit into current processes, deliver quantifiable ROI, and build trust among analysts and engineers.

CISOs are dealing with a threatscape moving at machine speed

Given how lethal machine-driven attacks are becoming, exacerbated by the growing sophistication of weaponized AI, going on the offensive with GenAI is a choice more CISOs are considering.

  • Nearly every cybersecurity team wants to have a Gen AI pilot either complete or in process to see how it integrates with their planned arsenal for 2026. Most CISOs want some form of AI in their arsenals going into the new year, as many expect the intensity, ingenuity, and lethal impact of automated attacks will reach new levels next year. One told me confidentially she fully expects machine-on-machine breach attempts to grow six times over in 2026 as her financial services firm handles highly speculative assets, including cryptocurrency ETFs and investment products.
  • Breakout speed hits critical mass. CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report reveals the alarming acceleration of attacks: the fastest observed eCrime intrusion took just 51 seconds to escalate from initial access to lateral movement, virtually eliminating defenders’ window to respond.
  • Living-off-the-Land tactics dominate and often evade legacy cyberdefense systems: Malware-free intrusions surged significantly, now comprising 81% of interactive attacks in 2025. This trend is corroborated by findings from Mandiant and IBM X-Force, indicating adversaries are bypassing traditional signature-based controls by exploiting legitimate tools native to the enterprise environment.
  • Nation-state activity reaching new record levels as weaponized tradecraft gains stealth and sophistication: CrowdStrike, Mandiant have documented triple-digit increases in operations linked to China, Iran, and North Korea. These attacks predominantly target telecommunications and critical infrastructure, reflecting geopolitical tensions and nation-states’ strategic prioritization of cyber-espionage.
  • Global threat consensus is clear and compelling: ENISA’s Threat Landscape 2025 report aligns precisely with intelligence from CrowdStrike, Mandiant, and IBM X-Force, verifying that nation-state actors now leverage AI-driven automation to execute attacks faster than enterprises can detect, let alone defend.

CrowdStrike Founder and CEO George Kurtz underscored the urgency clearly in a recent CNBC interview on October 23rd, stating, “Well, this is something that we’ve really been focused on for the last number of years is being able to protect agentic AI. And if you think about agentic AI, it has the capabilities to interact with data. It has the capabilities to interact with Compute. It has identities, non-human identities, but it operates at superhuman speed. So all of the challenges that we’ve seen over the many years of humans getting themselves into trouble is only going to be exasperated by agentic AI, and we need security like CrowdStrike is delivering to protect it”.

Practical guidance from CISOs adding GenAI to their arsenals

Gartner’s latest research, combined with interviews and discussions with CISOs, security leaders, and SOC leaders who are piloting and in some cases using GenAI-based platforms today, offers this advice:

  • Go deep on integration on pilots to see how strong the GenAI solution is as a contributor to your security tech stack: CISOs and SOC leaders tell me that this is the most reliable test of whether a GenAI platform or app will make the cut and get to production on their tech stack. Solid APIs that have been battle-tested by vendors who have a strong API management history have the inside track.
  • Outcome-driven use cases are a must-have:At its core, cybersecurity is a business decision. And in a digital-first world, protecting your brand is essential. Any Gen AI pilot needs to contribute to a use case that makes a solid contribution to solidifying a business’s ability to compete.
  • Start with time-tested, established metrics: Getting to a level of trust in GenAI is core to seeing if it is ready to progress from pilot into production. Evaluating GenAI effectiveness using established KPIs, including mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to respond (MTTR), at table stakes. CISOs and others running pilots caution about creating entirely new metrics just for GenAI. It obfuscates the total business impact of the technology.
  • Parallel human trust and governance: Gartner emphasizes investing in employee enablement and robust governance frameworks like NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework to foster confidence in GenAI adoption. Human oversight remains a vital layer of control. Human-in-the-middle is essential for any workflow.

Bottom Line

Nation-state adversaries measure their innovation in how lethal their attacks are, how stealth their tradecraft is, and how easily they can evade legacy security techniques. It’s a full cyberwar just a few steps away from a full-on kinetic war. Research from CrowdStrike, IBM, Mandiant, and many other companies shows machine-to-machine attacks orchestrated with Gen AI are accelerating, so much so that Forrester predicts an imminent AI breach next year. GenAI’s ability to identify new threats and stop them makes the technology work a look.

Oct 28

Top ten cybersecurity startups to watch in 2025 according to $3.21B in investor bets

Top Ten Cybersecurity Startups to Watch in 2025 According to $3.21B in Investor Bets

While the industry still debates whether AI will transform cybersecurity, investors have already made up their minds.

Based on an analysis of the latest Crunchbase data compiled recently that spans January 2024 to October 2025, ten standout startups captured $1.41 billion in new funding, signaling that machine-speed defense against AI-driven threats is no longer optional; it’s an operational reality. Together, these ten startups have raised $3.21 billion, which represents one of the heaviest capital concentrations in cybersecurity startups to date.

Investors are gravitating to cybersecurity startups that solve complex problems

CrowdStrike’s Falcon 2025 event, held earlier this year in Las Vegas, showcased a series of new agentic AI developments that, taken together, reflect how cross-platform and cross-competitor collaboration aimed at shutting down increasingly complex weaponized AI threats leads to faster innovation. VentureBeat’s analysis of the many announcements there explains how the cybersecurity company is betting on agentic AI to defeat adversaries.

Interested in quantifying how AI is impacting investors’ decisions, I completed an analysis using Crunchbase data covering 342 verified cybersecurity startups with active funding. Selection was weighted toward recent momentum, total funding scale, stage maturity, AI integration, and proof through multiple rounds.

The key takeaway: Institutional capital is consolidating around companies that make autonomous security practical, and agentic AI is at the core of that direction. But AI is not enough; investors are looking for the ability to scale in enterprises once they have AI integrated into their core platforms.

AI in cybersecurity: Tablestakes, not a ticket to premium valuation

Sixty percent of startups integrate AI into their core technology. Yet contrary to hype, that hasn’t bought them higher valuations.

  • AI-integrated startups average $283M in funding.
  • Non-AI specialists average $378M.

Crunchbase data shows investors reward defensible specialization as much as AI capability. Quantinuum’s $925M for post-quantum cryptography and Zama’s $139M for homomorphic encryption prove that solving foundational security problems often supersedes AI as a differentiator.

Still, AI holds weight in investment decisions. Six AI-driven startups pulled $1.70B (52.8%), while four non-AI companies captured $1.51B (47.2%). Both models earn trust by underscoring AI for operational speed and deep tech for architectural resilience. And with seven of ten now at Series B maturity, investors are backing platforms that have already demonstrated enterprise traction, not experiments.

1. Quantinuum ($925M, Series B) Post-Quantum Defense. Closed a $600M Series B in August 2025. The company is building the only mathematical safeguard against the inevitable collapse of RSA and ECC encryption under quantum computing.

2. Saronic ($845M, Series B) Autonomous Maritime Security, Raised $175M in July 2024 for AI-powered unmanned surface vessels. With 90% of trade moving across exposed waterways, Saronic brings AI defense to the physical infrastructure that most enterprises overlook.

3. Auradine ($314M, Series B) AI Silicon for Security. Raised $80M to expand custom silicon that accelerates cryptographic workloads 10x faster than general-purpose hardware, eliminating bottlenecks in AI-driven security deployments.

4. Tines ($271M, Series B) No-Code Automation. Secured $50M Series B. Turns analysts into automation builders, saving 40+ hours weekly with drag-and-drop workflows that are proving critical for overextended SOC teams.

5. Dream Security ($198M, Series B) Critical Infrastructure Defense. Closed $100M in 2025. Their sovereign AI platform equips critical infrastructure with defenses calibrated to nation-state-level threats, providing a layer that traditional enterprise tools cannot reach.

6. Upwind Security ($180M, Series A)  Runtime Cloud Visibility. Raised $100M in December 2024. Focused on runtime intelligence, detecting abnormal behavior live rather than flagging static misconfigurations. Reduces false positives, elevates real threats.

7. Zama ($139M, Series B)  Homomorphic Encryption. Raised $57M in June 2025 after a $73M Series A in March 2024. Provides production-ready fully homomorphic encryption, enabling AI models to compute securely on encrypted data.

8. Noma Security ($132M, Series B)  Securing AI Agents. Closed $100M in 2025. Built to harden AI systems against prompt injection and model poisoning as enterprises push decision-making into autonomous agents.

9. ZeroEyes ($107M, Series B)  Firearm Detection AI. Raised $53M in 2025. Eleven rounds in, their AI models detect firearms on video feeds in seconds—cutting active shooter response time dramatically.

10. Upscale AI ($100M, Seed)  AI Networking Infrastructure. Raised a $100M Seed round in 2025. Building AI-native networking with hardware-accelerated encryption, aimed at high-performance compute environments.

The Bottom Line

Series B dominance (70%) shows that capital is flowing into platforms with market traction, not speculative bets. Forty-six rounds across these ten companies demonstrate durability and enterprise validation. The signal to security leaders is becoming clear based on the escalating nature of weaponized AI attacks: manual security processes are now liabilities. Defending at human speed against AI-enabled attackers is untenable. Investors understand this. $1.41B in recent capital confirms it.

Jan 2

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Top 10 fastest-growing segments from Gartner’s latest information security forecast Q4 2024

Top 10 fastest-growing segments from Gartner’s latest information security forecast Q4 2024

Gartner’s latest information security forecast reflects the optimism of most CISOs about their budgets increasing in 2025. Ninety percent of security and risk management leaders, including CISOs, told Forrester they expect a budget increase this year.

According to Gartner’s latest Q4 2024 forecast, end-user spending will surge from $183.7 billion in 2024 to $293.9 billion in 2028, reaching a 12.47% compound annual growth rate.

Information security spending will grow rapidly, driven by increasing investments in areas such as cloud security (25.9% CAGR) and managed security services (15.0% CAGR) as more enterprises face the many challenges of securing hybrid cloud environments.

Key segments, including infrastructure protection and professional services, underscore the urgency nearly all organizations have in securing their critical systems against increasingly lethal AI and generative AI (gen AI) attacks.

Below is a visual representation of the top 10 fastest-growing segments shaping the cybersecurity landscape.

Please click on the graphic below to expand it for easier reading.

Gartner forecast based on latest information security forecast for 4Q, 2024

The 10 fastest-growing information security market segments going into 2025

Infrastructure Protection

With spending projected to grow from $31.3 billion in 2024 to $51.2 billion in 2028 (CAGR: 13.1%), infrastructure protection leads the information security market. Securing infrastructure that will increasingly be used to manage model data, LLMs, and AI apps is one of the core drivers in this segment going into 2025. The latest Gartner forecast reflects the growing demand for infrastructure true protection as more organizations go all in on AI.

Security Professional Services

Spending on professional security services is expected to grow from $27.3 billion in 2024 to $42.3 billion in 2028, attaining a CAGR of 11.6%. These services are critical for implementing zero-trust policies and conducting proactive security assessments.

Managed Security Services

Managed security services spending will rise from $24.1 billion in 2024 to $42.1 billion in 2028, reflecting a CAGR of 15.0%. Outsourcing security to external providers has become essential as companies face a more lethal, AI-dominated threatscape while grappling with talent shortages.

Network Security Equipment

Spending on network security equipment will increase from $21.7 billion in 2024 to $32.8 billion in 2028, attaining a CAGR of 10.9%. This reflects the growing need to secure hybrid and multi-cloud networks as organizations expand their digital perimeters.

Security Consulting Services

Spending on security consulting services will grow from $23.0 billion in 2024 to $32.6 billion in 2028, delivering a CAGR of 9.1%. More organizations are looking outside for in-depth expert advice as they attempt to implement advanced security frameworks. Getting compliance right and ensuring consistency when reporting material events to the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) are also drivers of this segment’s forecast.

Identity Access Management (IAM)

IAM spending will rise from $17.7 billion in 2024 to $25.4 billion in 2028, achieving a CAGR of 9.4% according to Gartner forecast. A key subsegment, Privileged Access Management (PAM), is projected to reach $2.9 billion by 2025 as growing regulatory compliance requirements on a global scale are expected to drive adoption.

Cloud Security

Cloud security spending will grow from $9.0 billion in 2024 to $22.6 billion in 2028, achieving a CAGR of 25.9%. As cloud environments become more complex, investments in Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) will continue to accelerate growth.

Other Security Software

Spending on niche and innovative security software solutions will grow from $9.0 billion in 2024 to $14.7 billion in 2028, attaining a CAGR of 13.0%. This category includes specialized tools and apps used for combating advanced social engineering and adversarial AI-based attacks.

Data Security and Privacy

Spending on data security and privacy will increase from $6.1 billion in 2024 to $10.3 billion in 2028, reflecting a CAGR of 14.0%. Stringent data protection regulations and growing cyber threats are driving investments in this segment.

Application Security

Application security spending is forecasted to rise from $6.3 billion in 2024 to $10.1 billion in 2028, driving a CAGR of 12.7%. This segment addresses vulnerabilities in software applications, which remain a primary target for attackers.

Conclusion

Organizations are prioritizing agility and the ability to anticipate new threats while doubling down on cloud security. Predicted to grow at a 25.9% CAGR, cloud security is the fastest-growing segment in the forecast.

Spending on new tools to detect emerging threats is projected to jump from $9 billion in 2024 to $14.7 billion in 2028, further indicating that organizations are willing to invest in new technologies to stop emerging threats.

Ultimately, cybersecurity has become a more crucial business decision than ever before. While other organization budgets are being slashed going into 2025, cybersecurity continues to see gains and is increasingly seen as an investment in business resiliency.

Oct 19

Gartner’s 13 ways GenAI is improving B2B Sales is the roadmap every business needs

Gartner's 13 ways GenAI is improving B2B Sales is the roadmap every business needs

Generative AI (GenAI) ‘s potential for streamlining the most time-consuming processes in B2B sales is just getting started. As businesses increasingly rely on AI to enhance efficiency, automate routine tasks, and personalize customer engagement, GenAI is set to become a critical differentiator in the race for B2B sales and market leadership.

  • B2B sales organizations using GenAI-embedded sales technologies will reduce the time they spend prospecting and preparing for customer meetings by over 50% within two years.
  • Conversational interfaces based on GenAI will gain momentum and further revolutionize B2B selling. In 2028, they will be the driving force behind up to 60% of B2B sales interactions, up from less than 5% in 2023.
  • Centralized GenAI operations teams are also on the way, championed by Chief Revenue Officers (CROs). These teams will focus on integrating AI-driven strategies into sales and revenue operations. 35% of CROs will have GenAI operations teams online and incorporated into their companies’ strategic planning process by 2025.

The goal: find the most likely wins for GenAI in B2B Sales

Gartner’s recent report, 13 Generative AI Use Cases for B2B Sales, provides an analysis of where GenAI is helping improve B2B sales now and in the future.

“Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the sales technology landscape, offering innovative solutions in areas such as prospecting, sales analytics, forecasting, and sales enablement. Tools infused with GenAI capabilities are embedded in use cases across the sales function, supporting key priorities such as revenue growth, GTM, cost optimization, and risk mitigation,” write the authors of Gartner’s study.

In defining and ranking the most valuable use cases of GenAI in B2B sales, Gartner examined where the technology is being most effectively applied to improve sales operations, increase seller productivity, and fuel future transformation.

The following multidimensional grid defines the use cases by value and feasibility.

Source: Generative AI Use Cases for B2B Sales, Gartner, Inc.

Gartner evaluated each use case for GenAI in B2B sales by scoring them on two key factors: business value and feasibility. The figure below shows the breakout of value and feasibility factors Gartner has used as a framework to rank the 13 use cases: “While we’ve defined the dimensions of value and feasibility according to our research criteria, companies are encouraged to customize these parameters to align with their own business needs,” the report states.

Source: Gartner, Inc. (2024) Generative AI Use Cases for B2B Sales

Mapping GenAI Use Cases Across Business Functions

Gartner also provides a GenAI use-case pipeline as part of their analysis to graphically explain how the 13 AI-driven strategies or use cases are distributed across business functions, including marketing, sales, and customer success.

The goal is to help organizations identify and take action on the use cases that will deliver the most significant potential impact. Gartner advises that use cases that span multiple stages of the pipeline typically deliver greater overall business value, making them strategic targets for investment. Additionally, the pipeline acts as a guide to identifying the relevant stakeholders within the organization, enabling more focused discussions and alignment on AI implementation priorities.

Source: Gartner, Generative AI Use Cases for B2B Sales.

GenAI is redefining the future of B2B Sales

Within the next three years, GenAI will emerge as one of the main factors that differentiate the most efficient and financially successful B2B sales organizations. With CROs creating operations teams to scale AI improvements across every phase of the sales process and sales teams using AI to automate reporting and manually-intensive tasks, GenAI is supposed to revamp the time-consuming work that gets in the way of selling.

Gartner’s analysis highlights that AI-driven strategies will soon dominate, with significant gains in efficiency and customer engagement. The message is clear: for sales organizations looking to stay ahead, embracing GenAI is not optional—it’s essential. Those who act now will position themselves as leaders in the evolving world of B2B sales, while those who hesitate risk being left behind.

 

Oct 6

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

CEOs and C-level executives, including line-of-business leaders managing enterprises, no longer have time for AI hype—they need actionable plans that deliver measurable results.

Every CEO I know has a Gen AI tech trends deck ready for board meetings. They’re all impatient for results.

Gartner’s 2024 Generative AI Planning Survey, published yesterday, reflects how impatient CEOs and their teams are gaining traction with GenAI pilots and AI initiatives. The survey involved 822 business executives from North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific across eight corporate functions.

Key insights from the GenAI planning survey include the following:

  • 11.3% to 19.7% cost savings are expected from GenAI, with the lowest in finance and highest in marketing and HR, as predicted by CEOs and C-level leaders.

  • 87% of CEOs/C-suite are driving GenAI adoption in areas like sales and finance, pushing top-down initiatives for implementation.

  • Legal departments: 26% rolling out GenAI for contract review in 6 months; already widely used for legal research and analysis.

  • 19.7% cost savings in marketing driven by GenAI, making it the most impacted department for efficiency gains.

  • 28% of leaders cite technical challenges as the top barrier to GenAI implementation, followed by talent acquisition (26%) and costs (24%).

  • 69% of GenAI-advanced companies focus on upskilling staff, while 64% are creating new AI-specific roles to meet talent needs.

Cutting through the hype: What CEOs need to know about GenAI going into next year

Rhetoric into results is the new mantra of the C-suite going into 2025.

That’s especially the case with GenAI.

Board members are worried they’re about to get lapped or, worse, see their companies become gradually irrelevant by competitors who are more focused on making GenAI pay than they are. The greater the acuity and insight of how to turn GenAI into a competitive strength, the greater the speed at which an enterprise executes and gets solid results. Speed isn’t optional anymore, it’s table stakes to compete.

Just as every business needs to keep challenging itself to find new paths to reinvent itself to make AI a competitive strength, the same holds for working professionals. There has never been a better time to double down on new skills and master AI tools, technologies, and knowledge.

The following are ten insights every CEO needs to know about GenAI going into 2025:

  • Over the next 12-18 months, GenAI will boost productivity by 22.6%, outpacing revenue growth at 15.8% and cost savings at 15.2%. While cost efficiency and revenue gains matter, the most immediate and substantial impact will be on operational efficiency. Gartner predicts that enterprises that prioritize GenAI integration will see significant increases in both workflow optimization and financial performance.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • 30% of leaders plan to reduce headcount by 3% to 5% in 2024 due to GenAI-driven automation, with an overall average savings of 4.6%. These reductions will primarily affect roles tied to repetitive or manual tasks as organizations seek to streamline operations. Another 18% anticipate more minor cuts of 1% to 3%, while 14% expect deeper reductions of 8% to 10%, signaling that GenAI’s impact will vary by function. Only 10% foresee no layoffs.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • 87% of sales teams are following CEO or C-suite directives to implement GenAI, demonstrating a top-down strategy that prioritizes AI for revenue growth and a more significant competitive advantage. Supply chain (79%) and finance (74%) also see intense executive pressure, indicating that leadership views AI as critical for optimizing operational efficiency and financial management.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • 84% of organizations prioritize embedding GenAI into existing applications as the top method for enabling their use cases, with 34% making it their first choice. Customizing existing models (74%) and training custom models (65%) follow, while only 59% opt for stand-alone tools. Enterprises are focusing on integrating GenAI within their current systems to drive efficiency and impact rather than relying on isolated or siloed solutions.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • HR leads GenAI budget allocation at 7.1%, followed closely by customer service (7.0%) and finance (6.9%). Across functions, business leaders plan to allocate 5.4% to 7.1% of their 2024 budgets to GenAI initiatives, including spending on technology licensing and employee deployment costs. Gartner observes that this shows a solid commitment to embedding GenAI across departments, with HR and customer service prioritizing it for operational efficiency and innovation.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • 54% of C-level executives prioritize privacy concerns as the top GenAI risk, followed closely by misuse (49%) and job displacement fears (48%). These top concerns highlight the critical need for strong governance and risk management frameworks and plans to ensure ethical, secure AI deployment. CEOs need to step up the pace on this now if they’re going to compete in this dimension of their business in 2025.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • According to 28% of leaders, technical implementation, talent acquisition (26%), and governance issues (25%) are the top three barriers to GenAI adoption. North America struggles more with measuring value (30%), while Europe faces higher cultural resistance (24%). These barriers highlight the need for focused strategies to overcome implementation and talent gaps across regions.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

  • 32% of service-centric industries struggle with measuring value from GenAI initiatives, significantly more than asset-centric industries. The top barriers for both include the cost of running AI, technical implementation (32% each), and getting the necessary talent (28%). To excel, enterprises need to address these common challenges and tailor strategies that overcome sector-specific obstacles, including data availability (28% for service-centric industries).

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • Customer service leads GenAI adoption with 40% using real-time speech and text translation, followed by marketing (38% with chatbots and digital humans), sales (34% with generative business intelligence), HR (29% for job descriptions and skills data), supply chain (30% for chatbots and code generation), finance (22% for coding assistance), legal/risk (17% for legal research), and procurement (18% for contract lifecycle management).

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

  • 76% of mature AI organizations actively recruit additional headcount for existing roles to meet GenAI talent needs, significantly more than the 52% of less mature organizations. They also prioritize running AI literacy programs (67%) and upskilling staff with GenAI skills (67%) to ensure their workforce remains competitive. Mature organizations are also more likely to create new roles for GenAI (67%) and establish AI centers of excellence (45%), showing their commitment to both talent acquisition and long-term AI capability development.

Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

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