Business leaders warn AI threats will test resilience in 2026

While companies are embracing artificial intelligence throughout all levels of their organisation, there is growing concern that it could be used to enable data breaches. International consultancy Talan has published a report highlighting business leaders’ concerns about cyber threats – showing that in the next 12 months, more than three-quarters believe AI will become a core part of cyber-threat engineering.

For decades, digital connectivity has been painted as inherently desirable, making it possible for professionals to do business instantly with a few clicks of a button. Among the benefits of this are responsiveness to global trends, with firms being able to immediately adapt to crises; and a reduction in the amount of time and energy devoted to repetitive processes and admin.

But there has been a major trade-off – especially as the companies whose infrastructure enables all this increasingly consolidate into a few colossal monopolies. As shown by the AWS outage during October, if the Amazon-owned computing platform sneezes, the world catches cold.

Having embedded itself within the very fabric of cloud-based computing – the infrastructure that underpins the delivery of the IT systems which is now so much a part of everyday life – when it encountered "significant error rates for requests", this had an impact on apps and organisations of every shape and size. Snapchat, Roblox, Zoom, Coinbase, HMRC and even banking services like Lloyds, Bank of Scotland and Halifax were among the entities disrupted – illustrating the gravity of the situation.

According to some experts – who have warned against placing more eggs in fewer baskets – this is becoming more common too. For example, in 2021, a configuration error brought down Meta properties for six hours; and in the same year, Amazon, Reddit, Twitch, Spotify and a number of news sites were down when an unknown bug triggered by a customer at cloud service provider Fastly caused an outage. And in July 2024, a problem code in CrowdStrike cyber security software was automatically installed in computer systems causing them to break down and display a "blue screen of death" – with some 8.5 million computers rendered temporarily useless, and knocking many internet services offline.

Rising threat

This last context is one which is increasingly concerning business leaders, too. A new study from Talan has shown that chief information security officers see the rise of AI as something which is heightening cyber security risks – and in this era, where if one big company has a glitch, much of modern life and business comes to a standstill, that is especially concerning.

Of 200 executives across the UK and Europe, Talan found that 62% are currently “very confident” they have the resources to tackle cyber and privacy threats. However, most acknowledge that the fast-changing picture of threats – with financial and geopolitical instability on the rise – could prove that wrong. When asked what was most concerning currently, 79% identified AI-accelerated engineering and system abuse as the biggest cyber threat for 2026 – knocking ransomware into second, on 69%.

When it comes to preparing for these threats, the C-suite respondents were confident in their ability to recruit the right talent. Unlike global trends pointing to a persistent skills shortage, 77% of respondents said recruiting and retaining the right cyber talent was “easy”. At the same time, 66% are already incorporating AI into their own services – including to help combat hackers. However, getting the most from either will require the upskilling of incumbent staff – and the researchers found there was a significant shortcoming here; as only 44% rate overall staff understanding of cyber security as excellent. This gap shows why regular training and a strong security culture still matter.

Mandeep Thandi, director of cyber and privacy at Talan, said, “Cyber threats are now a top business risk – no longer ‘just’ a tech problem, but a leadership test. Executives now rank cyber alongside financial and geopolitical uncertainty as one of the biggest challenges facing organisations today. With AI-driven attacks growing more sophisticated by the month, the next year will test just how resilient organisations really are. Those that combine strong governance with engaged employees and a responsible approach to AI will be best placed to adapt and thrive.”