AI · 4h ago
PwC’s survey of 3,934 business and technology leaders in 71 countries found that AI-directed botnets, adversarial attacks, and data poisoning now rank among the top preparedness gaps, even as cyber budgets keep rising. The October 1 Global Digital Trust Insights snapshot also found that 84% of security and finance leaders expect cyber spending to grow, with AI near the top of the list.
The problem is less the model than the operating environment around it. Adversarial attacks can steer an AI by changing what it sees, and data poisoning can seed bad records into what it learns from, so the system still sounds confident while making wrong decisions. PwC also says only 39% of leaders have fully formalized continuity plans for cyber incidents, and about half have implemented basic data classification.
That puts AI deployments and AI-enabled attack response in the same weak spot: if an incident corrupts data or interrupts decisions, many organizations do not yet have the continuity and data controls to recover cleanly. For teams putting assistants or agents into internal workflows, the lasting exposure is often the business process around the AI, not the model alone.
3 sources covering this story
Botnets, adversarial attacks and data poisoning top leaders' AI threat list - Help Net Security
Attacks on AI systems are the cyber threat companies feel least ready for, PwC asked 3,934 business and tech leaders.
Enterprises Struggle to Prepare for AI and Quantum Threats, PwC Says
PwC’s survey found that only 22% of leaders would use fully autonomous AI for cyber defense, while just 21% are implementing quantum-resistant security measures.
AI Threats Top Cybersecurity Preparedness Gap, PwC Finds
PwC finds global security leaders are most concerned about attacks on AI systems
Part of the PlainSec briefing for 2026-10-02