At TecnetOne, we’re seeing more and more companies excited about integrating artificial intelligence into their operations. And with good reason: AI (especially generative artificial intelligence) has the potential to transform everything from internal productivity to how a company innovates for its customers.
But it’s also true that many businesses are adopting AI without fully understanding the cybersecurity risks involved. And what’s most concerning is that they’re often unprepared to properly secure their AI implementations.
Because yes, AI can be a powerful tool. But if it’s not deployed with the right security measures, it could end up opening more doors to cybercriminals than to innovation.
Companies Are Adopting AI Faster Than They Can Protect It
The excitement around artificial intelligence continues to grow. According to a study by EY, 92% of tech leaders plan to increase their investment in AI by 2025—a 10% jump from 2024. And there’s a clear reason behind this momentum: agentic AI (a more autonomous and interactive form of AI) is beginning to redefine what it means to stay competitive. In fact, 69% of these leaders believe their organizations need it to avoid falling behind.
But while interest surges, security isn’t keeping pace.
A report from the World Economic Forum reveals a concerning insight: although 66% of organizations expect AI to have a significant impact on cybersecurity within the next 12 months, only 37% have implemented processes to assess its security before deployment.
The situation is even more critical among small businesses: 69% lack basic security measures to protect their AI systems—things like monitoring training data or maintaining an inventory of AI assets.
Findings from Accenture reinforce this gap. Their data shows that 77% of organizations lack essential security practices around AI, and only 20% feel truly confident in their ability to protect generative AI models.
Why Is It So Risky to Implement AI Without Security?
Adopting artificial intelligence without a clear focus on security is not just a technological risk—it can also become a serious compliance and reputational issue. But beyond that, poorly protected AI can end up being a powerful tool for cybercriminals. Generative AI is changing the rules of the game… for attackers too. Here’s how:
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More believable phishing and fraud schemes: According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 47% of organizations now view AI-powered attacks as their top cybersecurity concern. And with good reason: 42% fell victim to social engineering last year. The problem? AI-generated messages sound more human, more convincing, and are much harder to detect.
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Model manipulation (yes, that’s real): Accenture has documented emerging threats like Morris II, an AI worm that can inject malicious commands into generative models. These attacks can hijack virtual assistants to extract sensitive data or send spam without detection.
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Deepfakes: the new face of fraud: Scammers are using AI-generated videos, audio, and images to impersonate public figures or company executives. In a recent case, attackers used a voice deepfake of Italy’s Defense Minister to trick businesspeople into transferring funds abroad.
Read more: DeceptiveDevelopment: From Crypto Theft to AI-Driven Hiring Scams
How to Prevent Your AI from Becoming a Vulnerability
The key is to think about security from day one—not after something goes wrong. Instead of “patching” with multiple disconnected solutions, organizations need integrated cybersecurity platforms that communicate with each other, can be managed from a single place, and don’t rely on complex integrations. Here are some key practices to build a secure AI strategy from the start:
Integrate Security Throughout the Development Lifecycle
From coding to deployment, security must be embedded at every stage. This includes:
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Applying secure coding practices
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Using data encryption
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Performing adversarial testing to detect vulnerabilities before attackers do
Continuously Monitor and Validate Your Models
It’s not enough to train a model and release it into the world. Organizations must perform ongoing testing to detect:
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Data manipulation or “poisoning”
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Unexpected changes in model behavior
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Emerging risks as threats evolve
Unify Your Cybersecurity Strategy
AI security can’t be isolated from the rest of your environment. Your defenses should be integrated across endpoints, networks, cloud, and AI workloads. This not only reduces operational complexity but also prevents attackers from exploiting weak points in your infrastructure.
Read more: Penetration Testing with AI: Pentesting Adapted to the AI Era
What Are the Best-Prepared Organizations Doing?
Both the WEF and Accenture agree: companies that are truly ready to harness AI securely are those with a strong, integrated cybersecurity strategy.
Accenture sums it up with a key concept: the "Reinvention-Ready Zone." Only 10% of organizations have reached this level. What do they have in common?
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Robust cybersecurity strategies
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Automation and full visibility across their systems
The result? These companies are 69% less likely to suffer AI-driven cyberattacks compared to less prepared ones.
According to the Acronis Cyberthreats Report H1 2025, AI-powered attacks are rapidly increasing. Over half of the incidents recorded in the first half of 2025 were AI-enhanced phishing attempts—more sophisticated and harder to detect than ever.
This highlights an important reminder: deploying AI without security is an open invitation to risks like ransomware, fraud, or the loss of sensitive data.
AI Is Not Just a Technology—It’s a Responsibility
Artificial intelligence is transforming business—but adopting it without proper security is like building on shaky ground: eventually, the consequences will come. Generative AI is here to stay and will play an increasingly central role in business operations and processes.
The challenge is adopting it securely, because an unprotected implementation can open the door to fraud, ransomware, and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
The good news? With a well-designed security strategy from the outset, AI stops being a risk and becomes what it truly should be: a driver of growth, innovation, and sustainable competitive advantage.
At TecnetOne, we help organizations integrate artificial intelligence in a secure, scalable, and future-ready way. Our Security Operations Center (SOC) provides proactive threat monitoring, detection, and response—ensuring every AI implementation is protected from end to end. Because innovation is only worth it when it's backed by protection.
