Only one in five chief information officers say they are highly effective at defending against cyberattackers using AI, a survey has found. 

Of those polled by security services group LevelBlue, 51% believe AI-powered attacks are likely within the next 12 months.

Yet only one-third say their organisation is prepared to manage that threat.

“AI presents enormous opportunities to drive efficiency and growth, but it also increases adversary sophistication,” LevelBlue chief security and trust officer Kory Daniels said. 

“AI could help them to increase their organisation’s cyber resilience. On the other hand, adversaries are using it to deploy increasingly sophisticated types of cyberattack.”

CIOs say their defences are still catching up to adversaries using AI.

Many are investing in machine learning for pattern matching to improve threat detection, and deploying generative AI to counter sophisticated social engineering attacks.

LevelBlue says while investment is accelerating, capability has not yet reached the level of anticipated threat exposure.  

Almost three-quarters of those surveyed say AI-driven security tools will be essential to improving detection and response.

But almost half say executive leaders are not adequately prioritising cyber resilience. 

See the survey here.