These are the main conclusions of the RSAC 2026 conference, held from March 23 to 26, 2026 in San Francisco (Moscone Center). This forum is one of the world’s largest cybersecurity events. It annually gathers tens of thousands of industry professionals (more than 40,000 participants this year).
RSAC 2026 focused on the impact of artificial intelligence on security, new threats and market transformation. Participants included representatives of major IT companies, startups, government agencies and security experts.
AI as the main driver of threats and defense
The key thesis of the conference is that artificial intelligence simultaneously enhances both defense and threats. RSAC Executive Chairman Hugh Thompson said, “AI is rapidly changing everything around us,” as quoted by IT Pro.
The statistics announced at the forum confirm the scale of change:
– 83% of phishing emails are already created with the help of AI;
– 40% of personalized attacks (on behalf of someone) use generative models.
Microsoft Security VP Vasu Jakkal added that 80% of Fortune 500 companies are already using AI agents, which creates new security risks, IT Pro notes.
Experts predict further growth: by 2028, the number of autonomous agents will exceed 1.3 billion.
The market is shifting to AI-native solutions
RSAC 2026 also showed a serious market transformation. According to PitchBook, deals in the SOAR (threat response automation) segment grew by 76.5% at the end of 2025, Axios emphasizes.
Reacting to this, Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha said, “the cybersecurity market as usual is dead,” emphasizing the shift from AI-enhanced to AI-native solutions.
One of the key trends has been the concept of autonomous systems that do not just analyze threats, but independently respond to them in real time, the conference noted.
However, the conference also emphasized the fact that risks remain critical:
– up to 95% of critical infrastructure operators will face cyber incidents in 2025;
– zero-day vulnerabilities created by AI are expected to grow – this is when a critical bug occurs in software that was not previously detected, which hackers exploit for attacks before the developer learns about it and releases a fix.
Summarizing the results of RSAC 2026, experts agree on one thing: without AI, it is virtually impossible to ensure effective cyber defense of systems. But it is also becoming a major threat to cybersecurity. And so far, there is no way out of this vicious circle.
