Firms trust AI despite 61% reporting cyber incidents

AI, LLMs, and agentic AI are their top cybersecurity concern.

More than half of Singapore organisations trust artificial intelligence (AI) to independently triage security alerts and patch vulnerabilities, according to Arctic Wolf's 2026 AI & Cybersecurity Trends Report.

However, 61% experienced a major cyber incident over the past year, with 13% reporting severe disruptions lasting six to nine months—more than three times the global average.

"What stands out about Singapore is that organisations here trust AI more than almost anywhere else in the world, and they're also more clear-eyed about its risks,” said Steve Hunter, director of engineering for APAC at Arctic Wolf. “That combination of confidence and caution is the right instinct, but it hasn't yet translated into stronger outcomes.”

“The priority now isn't adopting agentic AI faster, it's building the oversight, governance and human expertise around it so that trust is earned rather than assumed," he added.

Globally, AI adoption in cybersecurity continues to accelerate. About 94% of organisations use large language models (LLMs), whilst the same proportion said AI capabilities influence cybersecurity purchasing decisions.

More than half (51%) consider AI functionality a requirement when evaluating security vendors.

Despite widespread adoption, only 14% of organisations have made AI central to their cybersecurity strategy, reflecting limited confidence in autonomous AI.

Just 53% trust AI to carry out narrowly defined security tasks, such as blocking malicious IP addresses, due to concerns over false positives.

The report also found that AI, LLMs, and agentic AI are Singapore's top cybersecurity concern, with 53% of organisations identifying secure AI adoption and data transformation as their leading cybersecurity priority, compared with 41% globally.

Singapore organisations also showed a greater reliance on external expertise, with 52% using managed security services to address skills shortages, above the global average of 39%.

Globally, 63% of organisations reported experiencing a significant cybersecurity incident in the past year, whilst 48% of affected organisations faced disruptions lasting at least two weeks.

Despite these incidents, 96% of security leaders said they remain confident their teams can keep pace with today's cyber threats.

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