By Sujit Patel, Founder and MD, SCS Tech
Artificial Intelligence (AI) rapidly enables enterprises worldwide to do more with less. Amid increasing costs, supply chain complications and rising consumer expectations, AI is a crucial enabler for streamlining operations and business processes while making it easy for business leaders to make sense of massive business data.
AI is arguably one of the most prominent technologies powering the digital transformation of small to large enterprises. This is the reason why companies are increasing their investments in AI. According to a survey of CXOs by PwC, the rate of AI adoption increased from 62% to 70% post-COVID. In comparison, 94% of the respondents said they had implemented or planned to implement AI in their organisations.
Even in India, a survey by Deloitte found that organisations were planning to increase their investment in AI by 50% more than the previous year. As enterprises increase their investments, AI penetration in enterprise workloads leads to its faster adoption. In the future, AI is expected to bring digital technology into the three-dimensional physical environment surrounding an individual from the 2D screens. Interestingly, cybersecurity is one of the most extensive areas where AI is getting the most attention from enterprises.
Cybersecurity has become the top concern of enterprises amid the rising number of attacks. For instance, a survey of 5181 companies by business insurance firm Hiscox found that 48% had faced at least one cyber-attack in the past 12 months.
What is more worrying for enterprises is that the average cost of a data breach runs into millions of dollars. For instance, IBM’s ‘Cost of a data breach 2022’ report found that the global average cost of a data breach was $4.35 million, while in the United States, it was $9.44 million. That being said, the following are some ways in which AI is revolutionising enterprise security.
Automated security checks
AI-enabled security tools enable automated monitoring of cybersecurity threats across a wide range of elements in the IT network, including emails, shared files, third-party apps and more. For instance, checking emails and fixing bugs are some of the daily woes of a cybersecurity specialist. However, pairing AI systems with human intelligence enables specialists to manage many security threats efficiently.
Easy to scale
AI enables enterprises to scale up their cybersecurity operations quickly. It can seamlessly manage the operational security of hundreds of different data sources and technology solutions. It also provides the flexibility to adapt swiftly to emerging internal and external cyber threats through real-time monitoring of suspicious events. AI can flag an unusual activity in real-time, which allows experts to take immediate corrective actions.
Cost and time saving
A World Economic Forum report says that 95% of cybersecurity issues can be traced to human errors. AI, however, trains models that raise alerts of potential threats before they can reach a critical mass. Being able to tackle security breaches early can save a company time, energy, and money. For instance, an IBM report found that organisations with fully deployed AI and automation programs could save $3.05 million in costs and contain a data breach 28 days faster than those without.
It runs in the background
The beauty of AI is that it runs in the background while a business operates to find issues and anomalies. This means that a team can focus on its strong points and high ROI activities versus constantly managing security tools and waiting for problems to arise.
It becomes more potent with time An important branch of AI is Machine Learning (ML). AI algorithms analyze previous and current data to create models to make decisions. ML models then suggest improvements based on these pieces of data. AI security software becomes more effective the longer you use it, improving functionality and intelligence with constant usage.
The way forward
While increasing cyber threats are forcing enterprises to look for newer ways to ensure optimum productivity, there has also been an increase in investments in AI for cybersecurity. Globally, the value of AI in the cybersecurity market is expected to reach $60.6 billion by 2028 from $22.4 billion in 2023. AI offers the way forward for enterprises concerned over data protection, increasing vulnerability of Wi-Fi networks and remote working risks.
