Today, security teams around the world are under immense pressure. They are inundated with increasingly powerful cyber threats, especially as threat actors are now using AI to improve their attack strategies.

Addressing escalating threats

The modern threat landscape consists of increasingly complex and varied attacks. Today’s cybercriminals are using advanced techniques to breach security perimeters – ransomware attacks are more targeted, phishing campaigns are increasingly sophisticated, and attackers are exploiting new vulnerabilities. Attackers also launch large-scale automated intrusion campaigns to penetrate the organization’s defenses.

In particular, the speed of attacks has increased exponentially, with data breaches now occurring within days or even hours of an initial compromise. According to Unit 42 Incident Response Report 2024the average time between compromise and exfiltration accelerated to just two days in 2024 (from nine days in 2022). In fact, in nearly 45 percent of cases, attackers exfiltrated data less than a day after the compromise, meaning that if an organization doesn’t react immediately to a threat, it’s often too late.

There has also been a notable increase in the use of social engineering techniques, including extortion and AI-based attacks, which have become more widespread and harder to detect than ever before. right The 2024 State of the Cloud Native Security Reportmore than 2 in 5 respondents (43%) predict that AI-based threats will bypass traditional detection techniques and become more common. 38% of organizations ranked AI-based attacks as their top concern this year.

To combat these threats, organizations need to rethink their cybersecurity strategies. organizations use an average of 32 different solutions to secure their networks and systems. This reliance on numerous tools, each requiring specialized knowledge, is not sustainable. To effectively counter threats from malicious actors using AI, defenders must also be empowered with advanced AI tools. This overwhelming burden on security teams requires a shift from traditional methods to autonomous AI-powered solutions.

The role of automation in cyber security

Automation is not just a convenience; it is a must for modern cyber security operations. A traditional approach that depends on a variety of advanced tools, each requiring deep expertise and manual effort, not only slows down security teams, but also exposes organizations to risk from delays in taking action against threats and inadvertent errors in configurations.

Cyber ​​security experts are looking for ways to address these challenges. Palo Alto Networks, for example, launched three AI Copilots that have the power to transform the way cybersecurity professionals interact with their technology environments, allowing them to focus on making strategic decisions and solving complex problems. By using simple, natural-language requests, they help with remediation tasks, reducing the time and effort required to identify and resolve problems.

The main advantage of Copilots is their ability to deliver information efficiently and eliminate the need for manual searches, allowing teams to focus on high-stakes tasks. With real-time analytics and rich intelligence, Copilots helps teams visualize application, user and threat activities, providing full context for incidents. This empowers security professionals to make faster, more informed decisions without overwhelming them with data.

The future of autonomous security

As we look to the future, it is clear that automation is a must in the fight against sophisticated cyber threats. Autonomous solutions can reduce friction in workflows, including everything from threat detection to system configuration and data analysis. AI copilots represent a significant step toward autonomous security—a future where systems not only detect and respond to threats, but also proactively learn and adapt.

By automating routine tasks, these AI assistants enrich information, support informed decision-making, and guide users through complex remediation processes. Immediate access to vast security knowledge bases and quick documentation retrieval are just the beginning. With the integration of these capabilities, security teams can shift from reactive to proactive roles, focusing on managing outcomes rather than just alerts.