Humans Outperform AI in Hacking Competitions

The top human hacking team still outperformed the best AI team in a recent competition. While AI agents were present in 17 of the Top 25 finishers in the 2026 Global Cyber Skills Benchmark, they were mostly used by already strong practitioners. Here's the thing: AI appears to be augmenting top performers, not replacing them. In a cleaner test at the NeuroGrid CTF in November 2025, AI-augmented teams solved challenges 3.2 times faster overall. However, the team that completed all 36 challenges was entirely human, while the best AI team stopped at 32. This suggests that while AI can boost speed, human judgment and skill remain crucial for complete solutions.