Cisco Survey Finds Cybersecurity Is the Leading Barrier to Industrial AI Adoption
Original report publisher: not verified. Report discovered via Awesome Annual Security Reports.
Summary
Cisco’s 2026 industrial AI survey finds 40% of respondents cite cybersecurity as a leading adoption obstacle and 48% identify security or segmentation as a top networking challenge. IT/OT security collaboration remains uneven.
Key points
- Cisco and Sapio Research surveyed more than 1,000 decision-makers across 19 countries and 21 industrial sectors, reporting findings for companies with annual revenue above $100 million.
- Cybersecurity concerns were the most frequently cited obstacle to industrial AI adoption, selected by 40% of respondents; security or segmentation was a leading networking challenge for 48%.
- Some 98% rated cybersecurity as somewhat or very important to AI-ready infrastructure deployment.
- Only 20% reported fully collaborative IT/OT cybersecurity operations, while 43% reported neutral or operationally independent arrangements.
- Cybersecurity concerns were cited by 45% of fully collaborative organizations versus 33% of independent organizations; the report interprets this as greater risk visibility with collaboration.
- Industrial cybersecurity ranked second among AI investment priorities, selected by 32%; 85% expected AI to improve cybersecurity capabilities rather than reporting demonstrated improvements.
- The report recommends unified IT/OT security governance, zero-trust architectures, consistent segmentation and end-to-end visibility as foundations for scaling industrial AI.
Article Details
- Publisher
- Cisco
- Scope
- Industrial AI adoption, network readiness, cybersecurity, and IT/OT collaboration across 19 countries and 21 industrial sectors; companies with annual revenues above $100 million.
- Sample Size
- Approximately 1,000 respondents; the introduction states over 1,000, while the introduction letter states 1,000 operational leaders.
- Key Statistics
- 40% of respondents cite cybersecurity concerns among their top obstacles to industrial AI adoption.
- 48% identify security and segmentation among their biggest networking challenges in supporting AI-enabled operations.
- 85% expect AI to improve their cybersecurity capabilities; this measures expectations rather than demonstrated improvements.
- 43% report limited or no IT/OT collaboration on cybersecurity.
- Reported wireless instability is 90% among organizations with siloed teams, compared with 61% among those with collaboration.
- Recommendations
- Treat cybersecurity as a baseline requirement for AI-ready infrastructure, using secure-by-design architectures, zero-trust architectures, and consistent network segmentation.
- Establish shared IT/OT accountability, unified governance, aligned policies, and coordinated change management.
- Modernize industrial networks to provide reliable connectivity, sufficient bandwidth and power, predictable latency, and resilient operations.
- Develop edge computing capacity and shared network, security, and observability foundations to support production AI workloads.
- Align workforce capabilities with technology investments to sustain AI operations beyond initial deployment.