AXIS Insights: How AI-Driven Threats Shape Spending Strategies
A recent survey conducted by AXIS Capital Holdings Limited reveals that nearly 82% of executives plan to boost their cybersecurity budgets in the coming year. Interestingly, 75.2% of these leaders anticipate a reduction in cybersecurity personnel, attributing this shift to increased productivity driven by investments in AI cybersecurity tools.
AXIS surveyed 500 chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) across the U.S. and UK, uncovering significant differences in how these executive leaders perceive the risks and rewards associated with AI.
“AI is clearly a transformative force for data analytics, innovation, and operational efficiency, but it also brings us closer to an entirely new risk landscape,” stated Vince Tizzio, AXIS president and CEO. “The findings in this report highlight our evolving environment, where a technology promising immense productivity gains simultaneously introduces unprecedented risks.”
While AI enhances cyber defense technologies, it also equips cybercriminals with advanced tools, making threats faster, more adaptive, and harder to detect. In fact, executives from both regions identified AI-driven attacks (25.2%) as the foremost emerging cyber threat for the next 12 months, surpassing identity theft (18.0%) and supply-chain compromise (16.6%).
Respondents ranked their top AI-related risks as follows:
- Data Leakage: Unauthorized exposure of sensitive information (23.2%).
- Shadow AI: Unsanctioned use of AI tools by employees (21.6%).
- Model Manipulation: Tampering with an AI model to alter its behavior (19.0%).
- Deepfake/Social Engineering: AI-generated content used to deceive (17.6%).
- Regulatory Noncompliance: Failure to meet legal or industry standards (17.4%).
Overall, CEOs identified data leakage (28.7%) as their greatest AI-related threat, while 17.2% of CISOs shared this concern. Conversely, CISOs ranked Shadow AI as their top risk (27.2%), reflecting worries over unmonitored tools, compared to 16.5% of CEOs.
What keeps leaders awake at night is not just the potential attack itself but also the reputational damage (39.4%) and customer attrition (38.8%) that could ensue.
The study also highlighted that UK respondents are more cautious about AI adoption compared to their U.S. counterparts:
- Only 55.3% of UK CEOs are confident that AI will enhance their organization’s cyber defenses over the next three years, compared to 88.4% of U.S. CEOs.
- U.S. leaders (82.8%) are more likely to trust AI tools for cybersecurity decisions than those in the UK (43.3%).
- In the U.S., 93.5% of CEOs and 87.5% of CISOs believe AI provides a return on investment for cybersecurity, while in the UK, these figures drop to 69.1% for CEOs and 74% for CISOs.
- UK leaders feel less prepared (44%) for AI threats compared to their U.S. counterparts (84.8%).
- Additionally, 94% of U.S. respondents are more likely to carry cyber insurance compared to 68.4% of UK respondents.
“Our survey findings indicate the impact of AI in transforming corporate defense strategies while exposing differing views between CEOs’ strategic optimism and CISOs’ security prudence,” commented Lori Bailey, Head of Global Cyber and Technology at AXIS. “While CEOs often champion AI as a catalyst for innovation, CISOs view it as a new frontier of exposure and control.”
Methodology
The findings were derived from a 23-question online survey involving 500 CEOs and CISOs across the UK and U.S. The U.S. respondent pool included 138 CEOs and 112 CISOs, while the UK consisted of 123 CEOs and 127 CISOs. All respondents represented companies with at least 250 employees. The survey was conducted by an independent company from October 22-29, 2025.
Topics
InsurTech
Data Driven
Artificial Intelligence
Personal Auto
Interested in AI?
Get automatic alerts for this topic.
A recent survey conducted by AXIS Capital Holdings Limited reveals that nearly 82% of executives plan to boost their cybersecurity budgets in the coming year. Interestingly, 75.2% of these leaders anticipate a reduction in cybersecurity personnel, attributing this shift to increased productivity driven by investments in AI cybersecurity tools.
AXIS surveyed 500 chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief information security officers (CISOs) across the U.S. and UK, uncovering significant differences in how these executive leaders perceive the risks and rewards associated with AI.
“AI is clearly a transformative force for data analytics, innovation, and operational efficiency, but it also brings us closer to an entirely new risk landscape,” stated Vince Tizzio, AXIS president and CEO. “The findings in this report highlight our evolving environment, where a technology promising immense productivity gains simultaneously introduces unprecedented risks.”
While AI enhances cyber defense technologies, it also equips cybercriminals with advanced tools, making threats faster, more adaptive, and harder to detect. In fact, executives from both regions identified AI-driven attacks (25.2%) as the foremost emerging cyber threat for the next 12 months, surpassing identity theft (18.0%) and supply-chain compromise (16.6%).
Respondents ranked their top AI-related risks as follows:
- Data Leakage: Unauthorized exposure of sensitive information (23.2%).
- Shadow AI: Unsanctioned use of AI tools by employees (21.6%).
- Model Manipulation: Tampering with an AI model to alter its behavior (19.0%).
- Deepfake/Social Engineering: AI-generated content used to deceive (17.6%).
- Regulatory Noncompliance: Failure to meet legal or industry standards (17.4%).
Overall, CEOs identified data leakage (28.7%) as their greatest AI-related threat, while 17.2% of CISOs shared this concern. Conversely, CISOs ranked Shadow AI as their top risk (27.2%), reflecting worries over unmonitored tools, compared to 16.5% of CEOs.
What keeps leaders awake at night is not just the potential attack itself but also the reputational damage (39.4%) and customer attrition (38.8%) that could ensue.
The study also highlighted that UK respondents are more cautious about AI adoption compared to their U.S. counterparts:
- Only 55.3% of UK CEOs are confident that AI will enhance their organization’s cyber defenses over the next three years, compared to 88.4% of U.S. CEOs.
- U.S. leaders (82.8%) are more likely to trust AI tools for cybersecurity decisions than those in the UK (43.3%).
- In the U.S., 93.5% of CEOs and 87.5% of CISOs believe AI provides a return on investment for cybersecurity, while in the UK, these figures drop to 69.1% for CEOs and 74% for CISOs.
- UK leaders feel less prepared (44%) for AI threats compared to their U.S. counterparts (84.8%).
- Additionally, 94% of U.S. respondents are more likely to carry cyber insurance compared to 68.4% of UK respondents.
“Our survey findings indicate the impact of AI in transforming corporate defense strategies while exposing differing views between CEOs’ strategic optimism and CISOs’ security prudence,” commented Lori Bailey, Head of Global Cyber and Technology at AXIS. “While CEOs often champion AI as a catalyst for innovation, CISOs view it as a new frontier of exposure and control.”
Methodology
The findings were derived from a 23-question online survey involving 500 CEOs and CISOs across the UK and U.S. The U.S. respondent pool included 138 CEOs and 112 CISOs, while the UK consisted of 123 CEOs and 127 CISOs. All respondents represented companies with at least 250 employees. The survey was conducted by an independent company from October 22-29, 2025.
Topics
InsurTech
Data Driven
Artificial Intelligence
Personal Auto
Interested in AI?
Get automatic alerts for this topic.
