AI as a force multiplier in India’s cyber threat landscape

By Diwakar Dayal, Managing Director & Area Vice President – India & SAARC, SentinelOne

Cybercrime is expanding in India. Between 2022 and 2024, reported cyber incidents more than doubled. This indicates both an increase in attacks and more willingness to report incidents. Reading between the lines, one could also surmise that threat actors are scaling attacks with a focus on the tactical repeatability of tried and tested methods, rather than developing new attack vectors.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has played a role in this shift, albeit not in as dramatic a way as many had expected. By 2025, AI had established itself as a practical support tool in cyber operations. Instead of replacing older tactics, it helps criminals run them faster and at higher volume. Large language models (LLMs) now assist in writing phishing emails, developing social engineering scripts, and automating tasks that were previously completely manual. Attackers also ...