Flat Security Budgets Are Being Reallocated to AI, Agent Visibility and Token Costs
Summary
Organizations are shifting existing cybersecurity budgets toward AI security and agentic SOCs. The article highlights growing needs for agent visibility and identity controls, and warns that inefficient agents can drive up compute costs through excess reasoning and tool
Key points
- AI was the top priority for new security spending among 69% of respondents in an IANS and Artico survey, but only 24% had a dedicated AI security budget line.
- Security budgets remain constrained: 55% of CISOs kept budgets flat or cut them in 2026, while average growth was 5% and median growth was flat.
- Organizations are reallocating funds from existing areas, including SOC tooling and testing, toward AI capabilities, continuous validation, and monitoring AI use.
- Securing agents requires visibility into their behavior, data access, identities, credentials, and permitted actions.
- Survey respondents also reported funding AI security through existing security budgets: 53% in a Thales survey, compared with 30% who had a dedicated budget.
- Agents with insufficient context may reason longer, use more tools, and escalate more often, increasing compute and token costs.
- The article argues that shared context and threat intelligence can help agents reach verdicts more efficiently and contain those costs.
Article Details
- Topic
- Cybersecurity spending on AI, agentic SOCs, and the compute costs of AI-agent token use.
People
Aviv NahumCo-founder and CEO of Above Security; discusses visibility and control for AI security.Dave GerryCEO of Bugcrowd; comments on cybersecurity budget reallocation and agentic AI spending.Diana KelleyCISO at Noma Security; discusses securing AI systems and shared responsibility for agentic AI.John StrandOwner of Black Hills Information Security; comments on AI-driven changes to cybersecurity costs.Kanaiya VasaniChief product officer and chief marketing officer at ExtraHop; referenced as sharing agentic SOC best practices.
Vendors
Above Securitybudget line; it is reshaping the entire cybersecurity budget, said Aviv Nahum, co-founder and CEO of Above Security. Organizations still have to protect the same endpoints, identities, applications, cloudBlack Hills Information Securityimprovements on one side drive greater investment on the other, said John Strand, owner of Black Hills Information Security.BugcrowdDave Gerry, CEO of Bugcrowd, said much of the current AI spending trend involves a reshuffling of existing security priorities rather than a significant expansion of overall budgets. “It’s mostly reallocation. Very fewCrowdStrikeSOC Alliance, launched this year by ExtraHop with more than a dozen partners, including ReversingLabs, CrowdStrike, and LangChain, to build a shared context layer of devices, identities, workloads, connections andExtraHopThat is the premise behind efforts such as the Agentic SOC Alliance, launched this year by ExtraHop with more than a dozen partners, including ReversingLabs, CrowdStrike, and LangChain, to build a shared context layerLangChainthis year by ExtraHop with more than a dozen partners, including ReversingLabs, CrowdStrike, and LangChain, to build a shared context layer of devices, identities, workloads, connections and behaviors. RLNoma Securitybecause securing AI agents cuts across multiple parts of the organization, said Diana Kelley, CISO at Noma Security.Pax8AI adoption isn't limited to large enterprises. A Q2 2026 SMB AI Pulse Report from Pax8 found that 61% of small- and medium-size businesses are actively using AI. Although 29% of SMBs remain stuck in the experimentationReversingLabsthe Agentic SOC Alliance, launched this year by ExtraHop with more than a dozen partners, including ReversingLabs, CrowdStrike, and LangChain, to build a shared context layer of devices, identities, workloads,ThalesIn a recent Thales survey of more than 3,100 security and IT professionals in 20 countries, 30% of responding organizations said they have a dedicated budget for securing their AI use, and 53% said they fund AI security