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Once confined to large enterprises with big budgets, AI is rapidly making its way across the small and mid-sized business (SMB) landscape. Today, 77% of SMBs are using AI to some extent, and 78% of SMBs plan on boosting their AI investment in 2025.
To learn more about these intentions as they relate to safeguarding accounts, access, and activity, last month we asked: How will you be using AI to enhance IT security and cybersecurity this year?
As we expected, there were many great responses (from our many great community members!). Let us take a closer look at the three most popular categories.
#1: Threat detection
Improving threat detection was the most frequently cited way that AI will be used this year to enhance IT security and cybersecurity. This makes sense, because, as we all know, the best way to deal with data breaches is to prevent them in the first place.
Some of the ways that AI enhances threat detection include:
- Adaptive learning that leverages machine learning models to continuously improve threat detection capabilities.
- Advanced pattern recognition engines that analyze large amounts of data at immense speeds, in order to identify attacker patterns and anomalies, and detect subtle signs of malicious activity.
- Launching automated responses to mitigate and contain threats. According to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, companies that utilize AI for threat detection identify and contain data breaches 108 days faster on average vs. companies without AI tools.
- Using predictive analytics to proactively detect future threats by analyzing trends and patterns.
- Reducing the amount of false positives by more effectively assessing safe vs. malicious activities.
#2: Patch management
Using AI to automate and improve patch management was the second most popular response. Some key benefits of AI in this area include:
- Automated patch identification by scanning connected devices and detecting vulnerabilities in real-time and automatically launching remediation activities as necessary. Consider that 60% of all breaches are attributable to unpatched vulnerabilities, and half of these remain unremediated after 50 days — giving hackers ample time to establish an initial foothold and launch persistent campaigns.
- Automated prioritization that takes into consideration various factors, such as the impact of a vulnerability on core business areas, and determines the best order for patches to be completed.
- Improved patch compatibility analysis that use machine learning to proactively identify potential compatibility problems that might occur before patching takes place.
#3: Enforcing compliance
Enforcing compliance was the third most-cited way that AI will be used for IT security and cybersecurity in 2025. There are several ways AI is driving a major shift in compliance practices, including:
- Navigating regulatory complexity by leveraging NLP to accurately interpret detailed legal language, extract relevant data, and ensures compliance.
- Automating cybersecurity risk assessments with tools such as UEBA (user and event behavior analytics), which helps establish and maintain compliance standards.
- Enabling continuous monitoring at a speed and accuracy that is significantly superior to humans, while also generating reports that support regulatory compliance obligations.
- Improving cybersecurity incident handling to ensure that organizations both follow and document compliant remediation activities in the aftermath of a breach or other cybersecurity event.
Other responses
Here are some of the other ways that community members plan on using AI (or expanding their current usage) to enhance IT security and cybersecurity this year:
- Automating various SOC tasks
- Enhancing password security
- Integrating AI in XDR platforms to gain a better understanding of what is going on
The winners are
Now, let us announce the two poll participants who have been randomly selected to each win a $20 Amazon gift card: congratulations Will Fulmer and Didier Godot! Please email asguerin@devolutions.net to claim your prize.
Love (and a new poll) is in the air
Thanks again to everyone who participated in the January poll and for giving us a lot to think about as the year moves ahead.
Speaking of moving ahead: February is when Valentine’s Day falls, and we feel that you’ll “love” our new poll this month!
