In an increasingly AI-powered world, the cybersecurity battleground is evolving and expanding at scale with unprecedented speed.
Organisations are under growing pressure to defend against threats that are smarter and more adaptive than ever before. Recent LeveBlue research found that while 42% of executives now anticipate AI driven attacks on their businesses, only 29% feel adequately prepared to defend against them. This readiness gap presents a critical challenge and an urgent call to rethink cybersecurity strategies.
Traditional defences are no longer enough. Organisations must continually build true cyber resilience in the age of synthetic identities, deep fakes, and generative AI-enabled attacks. Cyber resilience means minimising disruption to an organisation and delivering desired outcomes by involving all stakeholders who are responsible for preventing, withstanding, and recovering from cyberattacks.
The new AI threat landscape
AI has fundamentally transformed how cyberattacks are designed and deployed. Sophisticated attackers are now leveraging generative AI to automate social engineering, clone voices, create realistic video deepfakes, and generate synthetic identities. And these methods are alarmingly effective.
For example, an AI generated video can mimic a CEO’s appearance and voice, instructing employees to transfer funds or share sensitive data. Similarly, synthetic identities can infiltrate systems and networks under the radar. Unlike traditional malware or phishing tactics, these AI driven methods exploit human trust and organisational blind spots in novel ways.
AI also enables adversaries to scale their operations. Attackers can generate thousands of customised phishing emails in seconds and learn faster from failed attempts. Unless organisations start playing by new rules, attackers can quickly get ahead.
Why current strategies need a rethink
Many organisations still rely heavily on perimeter-based defences, patching known vulnerabilities, and responding to incidents as they arise. These reactive strategies are not built to withstand AI-powered threats that evolve constantly and bypass conventional security controls.
Moreover, cybersecurity is too often siloed within IT departments. Business leaders may recognise the risk in theory but fail to engage with cyber resilience as a core strategic issue. This misalignment between business and security objectives leaves organisations vulnerable to attacks, disruptions, reputational damage, and regulatory penalties.
Cybersecurity needs a fundamental shift from a technical function to cyber resilience as an organisational and business imperative.
Four steps to AI ready cyber resilience
Building resilience against AI-driven threats means embracing a proactive, layered, and collaborative approach. Here are four key steps:
1. Elevate cyber resilience to a business imperative
Cybersecurity must be embedded into business strategy, not bolted on as an afterthought. This starts with leadership, involving senior executives and board members in cybersecurity discussions. Cybersecurity priorities must also align with overall business goals, and be measured against at a leadership level with KPIs and metrics. Finally, investment in security must be proportionate to the emerging AI risks.
2. Be proactive and intentional
Organisations must get ahead of threats through intentional design and investment. By adopting advanced threat detection and response systems powered by AI, organisations can match the sophistication of attackers. Staying ahead also means implementing exposure and vulnerability management technologies to identify weak points before adversaries do. Organisations should also move toward a Zero Trust Architecture that assumes no user or device should be trusted by default, even if inside the network.
3. Foster a cyber-resilient culture
Human awareness and behaviour are just as critical as technology in reducing AI threats. Training staff regularly on emerging cyber threats, including deepfakes and social engineering powered by AI, encourages a security first mindset. This means reporting suspicious activity is normalised and easy. Organisations should also promote safe online behaviours across all departments, not just in IT, and make cybersecurity part of onboarding and continuous professional development.
4. Prioritise software supply chain resilience
AI-powered attacks are increasingly targeting the software supply chain. Organisation must conduct regular assessments of third-party software and supplier security credentials. This means they can verify that partners and vendors meet your security standards, not just legally, but operationally. By ensuring supply chain resilience, organisations can mitigate risks from third-party vulnerabilities and maintain continuity even under attack.
Preparing for the inevitable
The uncomfortable truth is that AI-enabled attacks are inevitable. The speed, scale and sophistication of generative AI give attackers unprecedented leverage. By shifting to a mindset of resilience rather than just protection, organisations can stay ahead.
Resilience means being ready to both withstand attacks and adapt to quickly recover. It means integrating cybersecurity into every layer of the organisation and training people, not just systems, to be the first line of defence.
AI is rewriting the rulebook on cybersecurity and organisations that fail to adapt are leaving themselves dangerously exposed. But with clear leadership, proactive investment, cultural change, and robust supply chain management, organisations can evolve their defences to meet the challenge.
