As AI accelerates business transformation, it simultaneously increases the number of attacks organizations must defend against – and compresses the time in which defenders must respond.
The combination of geopolitical tensions, AI-powered adversaries and the rising tide of agent deployments has pushed agent defense to the center of corporate security strategy. The old playbook of manual detection and manual remediation is now structurally outdated, according to Morgan Adamski (pictured, right), US cyber, data and technology leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
“Enemies can have a chance, but I’m protecting the team,” Adamski said. “How do we integrate AI from the ground up to improve everything you do from a security perspective so you can benefit from efficiency and find the enemy faster?”
Adamski and Charles Carmakal (left), chief technology officer of Mandiant Inc., a Google Cloud subsidiary, spoke with CUBE’s John Furrier and host Alison Kosik on Google Cloud Next, during a special broadcast on CUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s live streaming studio. They discussed agent defense strategies, the evolving cybersecurity relationship between the public and private sector and why defenders are now playing an important structural role in the AI arms race. (* Disclosure below.)
Agent protection and the AI governance gap
The arrival of AI agents in business workflows has introduced a new layer of identity and behavioral risk that security teams are not yet equipped to manage at scale. As PwC’s extended alliance with Google Cloud signals, the industry is moving quickly to close that gap by embedding native AI controls from the start of deployment. The main challenge is that of “shadow AI” — workers who build and deploy agents outside of formal management structures, according to Adamski. Organizations want to encourage their employees to explore AI but lack the enforcement layer that makes it safe.
“There should be policies that will help you move faster, not slower,” said Adamski. “You just have to write them in the right way … write it to encourage innovation, but also to maintain that security barrier that you need.”
But the issue of exposure to vulnerability poses a challenge. According to the Mandiant M-Trends 2026 report, adversaries have reduced the defender’s response window from hours to 22 seconds – a pressure that only makes human security untenable. The race is now on for defenders to use AI models to find and fix weaknesses before adversaries exploit them, according to Carmakal.
“With AI, you can go much, much higher than what humans can do,” Carmakal said. “We will get many security benefits from using AI, but as mentioned, there will always be risks associated with it.”
Here’s the full video interview, part of SiliconANGLE and CUBE’s Google Cloud Next:
(* Disclosure: PwC sponsored this part of CUBE. Neither PwC nor other sponsors have editorial control over the content of CUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE
Support our mission to keep content open and free by engaging with the CUBE community. Join CUBE’s Alumni Trust Networkwhere technology leaders connect, share wisdom and create opportunities.
- 15M+ viewers of CUBE videosenabling conversations across AI, cloud, cybersecurity and more
- 11.4k+ CUBE alumni – Connect with more than 11,400 technology and business leaders who are shaping the future through a unique network based on trust.
About SiliconANGLE Media
Founded by technology visionaries John Furrier and Dave Vellante, SiliconANGLE Media has built a dynamic ecosystem of industry-leading digital media products that reach 15+ million elite technology professionals. Our new ownership of CUBE AI Video Cloud is starting to engage with audiences, using CUBEai.com’s neural network to help technology companies make data-driven decisions and stay at the forefront of industry conversations.
