Report: 40% of Security Teams Use AI Daily, Face Overwhelmed Alert Systems and AI-Driven Attacks

AI Adoption in Security Operations

Prophet Security's "State of AI in Security Operations 2026" report, based on a survey of over 250 cybersecurity professionals, reveals that AI is now a mainstream tool in security operations. 40% of security teams utilize AI daily, and an additional 56% are in the testing phase. Only 4% of teams have no plans for AI adoption.

Alert Overload and Staffing Shortages

Security teams are managing a high volume of alerts, with an average of 100 alerts per day, and larger organizations often facing up to 1,000. Over a quarter of teams handle more than 500 alerts daily. Despite this workload, team sizes have not grown proportionally; many teams operate with fewer than ten analysts. This leads to an average investigation time of 75 minutes per alert, with alerts often waiting nearly an hour before initial review. This delay can turn an efficiency problem into a containment issue, as attackers can move through networks in 29 minutes.

Consequences of Missed Alerts

Due to the overwhelming volume, approximately 28% of alerts are not investigated. This has direct consequences, as 60% of respondents reported that an ignored or missed alert later resulted in a serious incident, such as a data breach or system downtime. For one-third of these respondents, this occurred three or more times in the past year. Some organizations have even disabled certain security alerts because they lack the personnel to address them, which narrows coverage and increases exposure.

Rise of AI-Driven Attacks

Adversaries are also leveraging AI, with 56% of security professionals observing an increase in AI-driven attacks over the last year. These attacks are particularly prevalent in the finance and healthcare sectors. Common threats include AI-written phishing emails, deepfake audio and video scams, large-scale credential-stuffing attacks, and AI-generated malware.