AI Agents Are Being Drafted into the Cyber Defense Forces of Corporations

The rise of generative AI and large language models has drastically shifted the cybersecurity landscape, empowering attackers with easy-to-use tools that can create realistic video and voice deepfakes, personalized phishing campaigns, malware, and malicious code. This surge in AI-powered cyberattacks has opened the door for AI on the defense side as well. Agentic AI is becoming deeply embedded in enterprises, not only in finance and legal sectors but increasingly in cybersecurity, where AI agents are emerging as key assets for detection, analysis, and alerting. Brian Murphy, CEO of cybersecurity technology company ReliaQuest, explains the challenge: "It's a massive challenge to detect, contain, investigate and respond across larger companies. AI is allowing us to remove a lot of that noise, that tier one or tier two work, that work that's often not at all relevant to something that could be threatening to an organization." The promise of agentic AI lies in automating menial or time-consuming tasks, freeing human workers to focus on more strategic efforts. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy highlighted this in a June message to employees, stating, "We have strong conviction that AI agents will change how we all work and live," envisioning "billions of these agents, across every company and in every imaginable field," helping workers focus less on rote work and more on strategic thinking. Murphy shares a similar view for cybersecurity, where workers are often overwhelmed with tasks that contribute to burnout and talent shortages. He notes how AI has enhanced attackers' capabilities: "Those phishing emails, they used to look almost laughable with the misspellings and the fonts wrong. AI can take the average bad actor and make them better, and so the trick is if you're on the defensive side, they have to use AI because of the reality of what AI can do." ReliaQuest recently launched GreyMatter Agentic Teammates—autonomous, role-based AI agents designed to assist detection engineers and threat intelligence researchers on security operations teams. Murphy describes these agents as "personas that team up with a human, where the human prompts the agentic AI, effectively multiplying the incident response analyst's capability." For example, when an executive travels internationally, every time their device connects to a network in a foreign country, the security team is alerted and must verify the executive's secure usage. An agentic AI teammate can automate this verification and similar processes for board meetings or off-sites, handling hundreds of such routine tasks. Justin Dellaportas, Chief Information and Security Officer at Syniverse, notes that AI agents have automated basic cybersecurity tasks such as log analysis and are now beginning to automate actions like quarantining flagged emails and restricting compromised account access across multiple logins. "[AI] is being used by criminals to efficiently find vulnerabilities and exploits at scale," Dellaportas said. "Cyber defenders really need to lean into this technology now more than ever to stay ahead of this evolving threat landscape and the pace of cyber criminals." Dellaportas describes the adoption of agentic AI in cybersecurity as a "crawl, walk, run methodology," emphasizing trust and verification before expanding AI's autonomous actions.

What AI Bots Mean for Cybersecurity Workers

Both Dellaportas and Murphy agree that AI agents are tools to augment cybersecurity professionals, not replace them. Murphy highlights the skills gap in cybersecurity and sees agentic AI helping to bridge it by automating routine tasks and enabling faster knowledge transfer. "There may be a shortage of trained and skilled cybersecurity professionals, but there's no shortage of people who would like to be trained and skilled at cybersecurity," Murphy said. He also acknowledges the need for education about deploying agentic AI and concerns about AI decision-making transparency. Agentic AI is gaining traction across business functions. A May 2025 Gartner poll of 147 CIOs and IT leaders found that 24% had deployed AI agents, with over half of those agents working in IT, HR, and accounting rather than customer-facing roles. Avivah Litan, distinguished vice president analyst on Gartner's AI strategy team, said companies experimenting with agentic AI in cybersecurity find it "moderately beneficial," though questions remain about scaling beyond simpler tasks. "Security has always been the low-hanging fruit use case for AI," Litan said. "You first saw AI show up with fraud detection, so it's 100% that we're going to have digital security assistance in the future doing work and freeing up staff to take on the new attacks; the key will be making sure they stay up with all this innovation so they can see the whole attack surface." Murphy believes corporate adoption of agentic AI in cybersecurity may outpace sectors like finance or legal because companies understand AI is already being used against them and the only way to defend is to use AI themselves.

FAQ

The Role of AI Agents in Cybersecurity

Q: How are AI agents being utilized in corporate cybersecurity? A: AI agents are being integrated into cybersecurity operations for detection, analysis, and alerting. They automate routine and time-consuming tasks, allowing human cybersecurity professionals to focus on more strategic initiatives. Q: What specific tasks can AI agents automate in cybersecurity? A: AI agents can automate tasks such as sifting through large volumes of data to remove noise, handling tier one or tier two alerts, verifying executive travel security, analyzing logs, quarantining flagged emails, and restricting access for compromised accounts. Q: Are AI agents intended to replace human cybersecurity professionals? A: No, the consensus from industry experts like Brian Murphy and Justin Dellaportas is that AI agents are tools designed to augment, not replace, human cybersecurity professionals. They aim to bridge the skills gap by handling repetitive tasks and facilitating knowledge transfer. Q: What are the benefits of using AI agents in cybersecurity? A: The primary benefits include the automation of menial tasks, reduction of alert fatigue, mitigation of burnout and talent shortages among cybersecurity staff, and increased efficiency in detecting, containing, investigating, and responding to threats.

The Growing Threat Landscape and AI's Defensive Role

Q: How has generative AI impacted cybersecurity attackers? A: Generative AI empowers attackers with tools to create realistic deepfakes (video and voice), personalized phishing campaigns, malware, and malicious code, significantly enhancing their capabilities. Q: Why is it necessary for cyber defenders to use AI? A: Cyber defenders must adopt AI because attackers are already leveraging it to improve their effectiveness. AI provides the necessary capabilities to counter these advanced AI-driven threats and stay ahead of sophisticated cybercriminals. Q: What is the "crawl, walk, run" methodology mentioned in relation to AI adoption in cybersecurity? A: This methodology suggests a phased approach to adopting AI agents in cybersecurity, starting with simpler tasks and building trust and verification before expanding to more autonomous actions.

Future of AI in Cybersecurity

Q: What is the future outlook for AI agents in cybersecurity? A: The trend indicates that agentic AI will become increasingly embedded in enterprises, with adoption in cybersecurity potentially outpacing other sectors as organizations recognize the imperative to use AI for defense against AI-powered attacks. Q: What are the potential concerns regarding AI decision-making in cybersecurity? A: Concerns remain about the transparency of AI decision-making and the education needed for the effective and secure deployment of agentic AI within organizations.

Crypto Market AI's Take

The increasing integration of AI agents into corporate cybersecurity underscores a significant shift in how organizations are preparing for and responding to evolving digital threats. This trend mirrors the broader adoption of AI across various industries, including finance and technology, where automation and enhanced decision-making are key drivers. At Crypto Market AI, we recognize the parallel evolution of AI in the financial sector, particularly in cryptocurrency markets. Our platform leverages sophisticated AI agents for real-time market analysis, predictive modeling, and automated trading strategies. We understand that just as AI is a critical defensive tool in cybersecurity, it is also becoming an indispensable asset for navigating the complexities and volatility of the crypto landscape. Our AI-powered insights aim to equip users with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions in this dynamic market, much like AI agents empower cybersecurity teams. Explore our platform to learn how AI can enhance your trading strategies and market understanding.

AI agents are being drafted into the cyber defense forces of corporations