As digitization accelerates us into a world of heightened productivity, vulnerabilities are multiplying in step. Digital identity exemplifies this mix of promise and peril: Picture gliding through an airport gate, immigration, and hotel check-in without ever pulling out a document – it’s all blissfully convenient and efficient. “But then there is the darker side. What happens if your digital identity is stolen? You could be locked out of your digital life entirely,” says Ralf Wintergerst, CEO of Giesecke+Devrient.

And AI is redrawing that threat landscape. Scale is the new weapon, says Mike Beck, CISO of Darktrace: “AI is enabling attacks to be scaled in ways we have never seen before. Attackers can now quickly codify against vulnerabilities and deploy it at an incredible pace.” 

SoSafe, whose recent study found that 50 percent of respondents had experienced AI-powered social engineering, is seeing LLMs in phishing, fraud and misinformation. “Deepfake CFO scams are already happening, and as agentic models gain internet access, the risks only grow,” says CEO Niklas Hellemann. The global cost of cybercrime is projected to reach US $10.5 trillion in 2025, according to Deloitte. “Cyber risk is by far the fastest-evolving risk,” agrees Paolo Mantero, Chief Strategy Officer of Zurich Insurance Group. “Most attacks target small businesses, with 90 percent of insurance claims coming from SMEs.” That pressure is forcing security doctrine to evolve: “There is a clear shift toward zero-trust security,” says Tom Gillis, SVP of Cisco. Yet even AI defense is uncertain. “Unlike traditional applications, AI’s non-deterministic nature makes its behavior unpredictable. To address this, we are investing heavily in AI defense: using AI to protect AI,” he adds.