Indian Firms Budget for AI Security: Palo Alto Networks

AI security is now emerging as a separate line item in the security budgets of Indian enterprises. This is according to Swapna Bapat from Palo Alto Networks. Awareness of risks from unsecured AI is growing among chief information security officers. Many companies are now budgeting specifically to secure their AI usage. This comes as AI adoption spreads rapidly across organizations, often faster than security teams can track. Companies use AI through various platforms and internal applications, and employees are also experimenting with models. A global survey of nearly 3,000 cybersecurity decision-makers shows organizations have an average of 109 machine identities for every human identity, including 79 AI agent identities per human. Over the next year, AI agents are expected to increase by 85%, and machine identities by 77%. Bapat emphasizes that AI agents need to be treated like employees when it comes to security. This means deciding what an AI agent can access, tracking its actions, and being able to stop it if needed. However, less than half of organizations surveyed have basic safeguards like monitoring agent behavior. "Shadow AI," where employees use models without security team knowledge, is also a concern. This highlights the challenge in managing and securing the rapid proliferation of AI tools. Businesses need to understand and control their AI landscape to prevent potential security vulnerabilities.