Only 24% CXOs consider their organisations fully prepared for AI-driven threats: Palo Alto Networks & DSCI report

Palo Alto Networks in partnership with the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) released the State of AI Adoption for Cybersecurity in India report. The report found that only 24% of CXOs consider their organisations fully prepared for AI-driven threats, underscoring a significant gap between adoption intent and operational readiness.

The report sets a clear baseline for India Inc., examining where AI adoption stands, what organisations are investing in next, and how the threat landscape is changing. It also surfaces capability and talent gaps, outlines governance, and details preferred deployment models. Together, these insights form a practical roadmap for action.

The report underscores the dual reality of AI: it is a potent defence mechanism but also a primary source of emerging threat vectors. Key findings include:

• Adoption intent is high, maturity is low: 79% of organisations plan to integrate AI/ML towards AI-enabled cybersecurity, but 40% remain in the pilot stage. The main goal is operational speed, prioritising the reduction of Mean Time to Detect and Respond (MTTD/MTTR).
• Investments are strategic: 64% of organisations are now proactively investing through multi-year risk-management roadmaps.
• Threats are AI-accelerated: 23% of the organisations are resetting priorities due to new AI-enabled attack paradigms. The top threats are coordinated multi-vector attacks and AI-poisoned supply chains.
• Biggest barriers: Financial overhead (19%) and the skill/talent deficit (17%) are the leading roadblocks to adoption.
• Future defence model: 31% of organisations consider Human-AI Hybrid Defence Teams as an AI transforming cybersecurity approach and 33% of organisations require human approval for AI-enabled critical security decisions and actions.

“AI is at the heart of most serious security conversations in India, sometimes as the accelerator, sometimes as the adversary itself. This study, developed with DSCI, makes one thing clear: appetite and intent are high, but execution and operational discipline are lagging,” said Swapna Bapat, Vice President and Managing Director, India & SAARC, Palo Alto Networks. “Catching up means using AI to defend against AI, but success demands robustness. Given the dynamic nature of building and deploying AI apps, continuous red teaming of AI is an absolute must to achieve that robustness. It requires coherence: a platform that unifies signals across network, operations, and identity; Zero-Trust verification designed into every step; and humans in the loop for decisions that carry real risk. That’s how AI finally moves from shaky pilots to robust protection.”

Vinayak Godse, CEO, DSCI, said “India is at a critical juncture where AI is reshaping both the scale of cyber threats and the sophistication of our defences. AI enabled attacker capabilities are rapidly increasing in scale and sophistication. Simultaneously, AI adoption for cyber security can strengthen security preparedness to navigate risk, governance, and operational readiness to predict, detect, and respond to threats in real time. This AI adoption study, supported by Palo Alto Networks, reflects DSCI’s efforts to provide organisations with insights to navigate the challenges emerging out of AI enabled attacks for offense while leveraging AI for security defence.