More than three-quarters (77%) of companies responding to a global PwC survey expect their budget for cyber security investments to increase over the next year due to expanding vulnerabilities from the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), but also of cloud technology and the Internet of Things (connected devices).

Almost a third (30%) of organizations expect budgets to increase by 6-10% next year, while a fifth (19%) expect an increase of 11% or more.

“Although there is an expectation that budgets will increase, the study confirms a known situation – often, communication between IT security officers and the CEOs of the companies where they work continues to be difficult where cyber priorities are not discussed in terms of cost, opportunity and risk. The results of this year’s survey highlight, for example, that there are significant differences in the two functions’ perception of their companies’ ability to comply with regulations in the area of ​​IT security. Cyber ​​security officers are on the front lines. Their responses are less optimistic than CEOs’ responses regarding their organizations’ ability to meet compliance requirements regarding artificial intelligence, resilience and critical infrastructure,” said Mircea Bozga, Partner, PwC Romania.

Surveyed companies see investments in cyber security as a key differentiator for competitive advantage, with 57% citing customer trust and 49% citing brand integrity and loyalty as the main drivers for such investments. In parallel, cybersecurity regulations are also a driver of investment – 96% report that such regulations have increased their investment budgets in the past 12 months.

The top four cyber-attacks of most concern are cloud-related threats, hacking and information leakage, third-party breaches, and attacks on connected devices.

GenAI, a solution for strengthening cyber security

In response to the cybersecurity issues they face, 78% of companies surveyed say they have increased investment in GenAI in the past 12 months, and 72% have increased investment in AI governance risk management.

Although leveraging GenAI has become very important for cyber resilience strategies, organizations face several challenges when incorporating this technology, which mainly stem from the existing systems/processes in the company (39%) and the lack of standardized internal policies that to regulate its use (37%).