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UAE organizations are adopting AI-powered security at pace and seeing clear improvements in how quickly they detect and respond to threats, according to new research from Cisco. However, the findings show that organizational factors, including how teams coordinate and how easily they can access security data, remain the main constraint on further progress, as they are globally.
The UAE findings from Cisco’s Relentless Defense Report assess organizations on three areas: how completely they can protect their environment, how quickly they can detect, respond to and remediate threats, and what slows them down. UAE organizations recorded an overall score of 65.7 out of 100, compared with a global average of 63.9. 13% of UAE organizations qualified as Relentless Defenders, the top-performing group, compared with 8% globally.
Fady Younes, Managing Director, Cybersecurity, Cisco Middle East, Türkiye, Africa, Caucasus and Central Asia (METAC) at Cisco, said: “UAE organizations have built a strong technology foundation, and AI is already helping their security teams work faster. The next phase of progress is organizational. When security, network and infrastructure teams share the same visibility and can act on the same data without delay, organizations are better placed to keep pace with threats that are themselves becoming faster. The findings show that removing these barriers matters as much as the technology does”.
AI Is Accelerating Cyber Defense in the UAE
Among UAE respondents whose organizations have deployed AI-powered security, 89% report at least a 25% improvement in threat-detection speed. 85% report a similar improvement in their ability to respond to and remediate threats, while 75% say AI-powered security has moderately or significantly reduced their operational burden.
AI agents are also becoming established in UAE security operations. 40% of respondents say they are extensively deployed, and a further 36% say they are operationally deployed in key areas. Globally, just one-third of organizations have extensively deployed AI agents in security operations.
Closer Coordination and Shared Data Can Unlock Further Gains
Building on these gains, the findings point to clear opportunities to reduce the organizational friction that UAE security teams share with their global peers:
· Coordination: 41% of UAE organizations say their security and network/infrastructure teams operate as a single coordinated team with shared visibility and tools, in line with 41% globally.
· Data access: 66% say unified security data, providing a single real-time view across the organization, is one of the ways they manage security data. However, 40% say critical security insights are often missed because data is trapped in silos, and 41% say they spend more time manually collecting and correlating data from different systems than investigating threats.
As AI shortens the time available to respond, addressing these barriers becomes more important. Organizations that can coordinate a human response quickly will be better placed to govern autonomous systems that act in seconds. Through Splunk, organizations can bring security and operational data together, giving teams a more unified view across increasingly complex environments.
UAE Organizations Are Preparing Their Teams to Govern AI
Among UAE respondents using AI agents, 61% say they are very confident in their organization’s ability to detect and respond to a compromised AI agent or autonomous system. Organizations are also investing in their people: 34% say they are investing heavily in upskilling existing security team members.
For UAE organizations, the report findings point to a clear priority. The technology foundation is in place, and the next gains in speed and resilience will come from closer coordination between teams and more consistent access to security data.