Candice Frost: Agentic AI & Cyber Warfare's New Face

COL (R) Candice Frost recently briefed senior leaders on agentic AI and the changing face of cyber warfare. She spoke at The Institute of World Politics as part of a monthly lecture series. Frost, a retired U.S. Army Colonel, explained how advanced computational capabilities are reshaping global security. Her address, "Agentic AI and the Digital Battlefield: 2026 Operations Update," focused on the fusion of artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, and space assets used by state adversaries. She stated that traditional network defense models are now obsolete. The integration of "Agentic AI," which are autonomous decision-making systems, has reduced adversary dwell time from weeks to milliseconds. This means human defenders have almost no time to react. Frost detailed the "Big Four" nation-state adversaries. Russia is using Large Language Models for automated cognitive warfare, while China is preparing for potential conflict by infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure. Iran is deploying automated machine learning models into operational technology. This information is crucial for understanding the immediate and evolving threats in the digital landscape.