Increased spending on artificial intelligence is unlikely to come at the expense of cybersecurity budgets, according to a recent survey by Jefferies, highlighting the resilience of security spending even as enterprises ramp up AI investments.
The survey of 30 CIOs and IT decision-makers found that none expect cybersecurity to be among the top areas facing budget cuts to fund AI initiatives, underscoring the critical nature of security in enterprise IT priorities . Instead, companies appear willing to reallocate spending from other parts of IT, such as services and software, while maintaining or even expanding cyber investments.
This reflects a broader industry trend where rising digital threats, regulatory pressures, and the growing complexity of IT environments continue to support strong demand for cybersecurity solutions. As enterprises deploy more AI tools, the need to secure data, models, and infrastructure is becoming increasingly important rather than optional.
At the same time, AI is beginning to reshape parts of the cybersecurity landscape. The Jefferies survey found that areas such as threat intelligence and code security are seen as most vulnerable to disruption from large language model providers, given AI’s strength in pattern recognition and data analysis . In contrast, more critical functions like identity, network, and endpoint security are viewed as less exposed due to the need for high reliability and precision.
Spending specifically tied to securing AI systems is still relatively small but growing. On average, companies allocate around 6% to 7% of their cybersecurity budgets to AI-related security, a figure expected to rise over time as adoption accelerates .
source https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/greater-ai-spend-not-expected-to-kill-cyber-budgets-4574143
