Tight Cybersecurity Budgets Accelerate the Shift to AI-Driven Defense

With cybersecurity budgets strained, organizations are turning to AI-powered automation to plug staffing gaps, maintain defenses, and survive escalating threats.

The need to do more with less is not new, but now it is essential.

Recent reports from both IANS and Swimlane come to the same conclusions: cybersecurity budgets are adversely affected by political and economic pressures outside of their control. The knock-on effects could be severe.

According to IANS, cybersecurity budgets are still growing, but at a dramatically lower rate: down from 17% in 2022 to 4% in 2025. IANS explains this slowdown in macroeconomic terms: “Global market volatility, fueled by ongoing geopolitical tensions, uncertainty around global tariff policies, and fluctuating inflation and interest rates, has made the business outlook for most companies unpredictable.”

Gartner has predicted that worldwide “end-user spending” on information security will reach $213 billion in 2025, up from $193 billion in 2024. Gartner estimates spending ...