IANS and Artico Search
All Statistics
45% of CISOs saw their security budgets increase in 2026; 64% expect a security budget increase in 2027; and 8% anticipate a budget cut in 2027.
Security budgets grew by 5% in 2026, up from 4% in 2025.
81% of CISOs say AI will create new security roles.
70% of CISOs optimistic about managing AI risk say their security team uses AI effectively, compared with 38% of pessimistic CISOs.
81% of CISOs optimistic about managing AI risk own the AI security budget, compared with 50% of pessimistic CISOs.
CISOs running AI security-mature programs rate present-day AI risk at 3.7 on a 1–10 scale, while CISOs with low AI security maturity rate it at 7.8.
69% of CISOs name AI their top priority for net-new security dollars.
Among organizations that increased AI security spending by more than 10% this year, 75% expect another increase of more than 10% during the next budget cycle.
AI security tooling accounts for 3% of the average security budget, and software represents 35% of the security budget, two percentage points behind staff and compensation.
About 70% of organizations that track AI as a dedicated budget line item report increased AI funding, compared with 42% of organizations that embed AI within the security budget and 31% of organizations that fund AI in IT, data, or innovation budgets.
48% of CISOs with growing budgets cite increased business or operational risk as the driver of security budget increases, while 3% cite a major industry breach as the primary driver.
45% of organizations report flat security budgets and 10% report a security budget decrease.
91% of CISOs expect AI to make their security teams more productive over the next 12 months.
69% of CISOs do not expect AI to reduce existing security headcount.
41% of CISOs optimistic about managing AI risk report an understaffed security team, compared with 9% of pessimistic CISOs, a 38-point gap.
74% of CISOs optimistic about managing AI risk report clearly defined AI governance ownership at their companies, compared with 40% of pessimistic CISOs.
80% of CISOs optimistic about managing AI risk over the next 24 months say senior leadership has a fair or good understanding of AI risk, compared with 48% of pessimistic CISOs, a 32-point gap.