As the Middle East accelerates toward an AI-first digital economy, cybersecurity is entering a decisive phase. By 2026, the region’s enterprises, governments and critical infrastructure providers will confront a threat landscape defined by autonomous and agentic AI systems operating at machine speed. Traditional security assumptions—static perimeters, human-paced response, and siloed tooling—are rapidly becoming obsolete. Security leaders now face an environment where attackers automate reconnaissance, weaponization and exploitation, while defenders must respond with equal autonomy, intelligence and precision. Industry experts agree that the future of cybersecurity will be shaped by identity-centric architectures, continuous trust models and AI-driven risk management, all grounded in regional compliance and data sovereignty requirements.
Ali AlJuneidi, Regional Sales and Business Development Manager at ESET, highlights that by 2026 autonomous AI will fundamentally alter how cyberattacks are executed. He explains that attackers will deploy machine-driven campaigns capable of operating continuously across the entire attack lifecycle, from reconnaissance and exploitation to lateral movement and persistence. These AI agents will dramatically increase the realism and effectiveness of phishing, exploit logic flaws within AI systems themselves and move faster than human-led security operations can realistically respond. As a result, AlJuneidi stresses that organizations will be forced to abandon purely reactive approaches and adopt adaptive, behavior-based defenses. He further notes that identity security will expand beyond human users to encompass AI agents, APIs and machine identities, positioning identity as the primary security perimeter in a zero-trust world where no autonomous system is implicitly trusted.
Alexandre Depret-Bixio, Senior Vice President for EMEA and APJ at Anomali, reinforces the view that autonomous AI will accelerate the speed, scale and adaptability of cyber threats by 2026. He explains that attackers will increasingly rely on AI to dynamically adjust tactics in real time, exposing the limitations of legacy, siloed security tools that cannot correlate signals quickly enough. Depret-Bixio emphasizes that organizations will respond by shifting toward AI-native security operations, where automated analytics and actionable threat intelligence support risk-based decision-making at machine speed. He also points out that identity security will move away from static rules toward continuous, intelligence-driven trust decisions informed by behavior and threat context. For CISOs, he warns that fragmented security stacks themselves will become a critical vulnerability, driving the need for platform consolidation and explainable AI.
Virpi Juusola, Vice President of Product at QuantumGate, frames the 2026 cybersecurity outlook around trust, identity and cryptography. She observes that while AI will increasingly automate both attack and defense workflows, risk will concentrate around the mechanisms that underpin secure communication and authentication. Juusola explains that Zero Trust will evolve into a continuous verification process built on strong, phishing-resistant authentication, device integrity checks and cryptographic assurance rather than network location. She cautions that one of the most underappreciated vulnerabilities facing organizations is cryptographic blindness, where enterprises lack visibility into which algorithms protect their most sensitive data. This creates serious “harvest now, decrypt later” risks as quantum computing advances, transforming what was once a future concern into an immediate data protection issue.
Amar Mehta, Senior Director of Sales for MEA at Sophos, believes that 2026 will be defined by identity-centric attacks and AI-driven deception. He highlights the growing prevalence of deepfake-enabled CEO fraud, AI-augmented insider threats and sophisticated social engineering campaigns that exploit trust rather than technical flaws. Mehta stresses that data sovereignty and residency requirements across the Middle East will increasingly shape cybersecurity architectures, making regional infrastructure a strategic necessity rather than a compliance afterthought. He explains that with the rise of agentic AI, attackers will autonomously orchestrate multi-stage campaigns, while defenders will rely on AI-augmented detection, automated containment and managed detection and response services. By 2026, Mehta expects SOCs to rely heavily on AI for triage and response, freeing human analysts to focus on adversary behavior and strategic threat hunting.
Asif Ash-Hal, Lead Solutions Architect at TechBridge Distribution MEA, describes 2026 as the year cybersecurity fully enters the autonomous domain. He explains that both attack and defense will increasingly be driven by agentic AI systems operating with minimal human intervention. In this environment, Ash-Hal argues that the role of humans will shift toward governance, intent definition and ethical oversight, rather than manual response. He highlights that identity verification can no longer end at authentication, as AI-generated phishing and deepfakes make stolen credentials far more dangerous. Continuous risk evaluation and dynamic privilege adjustment will become mandatory. Ash-Hal also warns of growing vulnerabilities tied to AI adoption, cloud-native complexity and supply-chain exposure, particularly from third-party and open-source large language models embedded across business systems.
Hadi Jaafarawi, Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at Qualys, emphasizes that AI-orchestrated threats will push cybersecurity toward fully autonomous risk management by 2026. He explains that attackers are already leveraging AI to exploit vulnerabilities faster than manual processes can remediate them, effectively collapsing the traditional exploit window to zero. Jaafarawi notes that the region will see a decisive shift toward risk-based security strategies, where attack-path modeling and prioritized remediation take precedence over raw asset inventories. He predicts that the Risk Operations Center will replace traditional SOC models, enabling CISOs to contextualize risk in business terms and allocate budgets more effectively. Continuous, automated patching and real-time exposure management will be essential to counter AI-driven exploit chaining and lateral movement.
Ilyas Mohammed, Chief Operating Officer at AmiViz, underscores that autonomous AI will significantly increase both the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks by 2026. He explains that attackers will use agentic AI to scan environments continuously, adapt malware in real time and coordinate multi-stage attacks with minimal human involvement. This forces defenders to adopt AI-driven, autonomous defense models capable of continuous risk assessment and real-time behavioral analysis. Mohammed highlights that identity security will become fully contextual and dynamic, with access decisions continuously re-evaluated based on behavior, device health and intent. He also cautions CISOs to remain vigilant against vulnerabilities emerging from AI-driven systems, identity sprawl and cloud misconfigurations, as well as long-term risks associated with post-quantum cryptography transitions.
Jozsef Gegeny, Senior Security Researcher at Acronis TRU, explains that by 2026 cyber threats will become far more adaptive and persistent due to autonomous AI. He notes that attacks will shift away from static scripts toward AI-driven operations that continuously learn and adjust in real time. Gegeny expects to see personalized phishing, autonomous exploit chains and large-scale scanning for misconfigurations across cloud and SaaS environments. On the defensive side, he anticipates widespread use of agentic AI for alert triage, configuration validation and even deception techniques designed to mislead attacker AI systems. He stresses that identity-first zero trust will become the default architecture, while emerging risks such as machine identity abuse and AI-generated social engineering demand anticipatory, context-aware defenses.
Meriam ElOuazzani, Regional Senior Director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa at SentinelOne, highlights that autonomy will become a defining element of cybersecurity by 2026. She explains that attackers will increasingly automate reconnaissance, phishing and lateral movement, while defenders will rely on AI to detect, prioritize and respond to threats in real time. ElOuazzani notes that identity will emerge as the primary control plane, with Zero Trust frameworks becoming tangible, AI-enabled systems rather than theoretical models. She warns that insecure APIs, cloud misconfigurations and identity sprawl will create dangerous visibility gaps as IT, cloud and operational technology environments converge. Unified detection and automated remediation will therefore be critical to maintaining resilience across increasingly interconnected ecosystems.
Mohammed Aboul-Magd, Vice President of Product for the Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ, argues that agentic AI will fundamentally shift attacks from endpoints to identities by 2026. He explains that autonomous agents will execute code and access sensitive data using real privileges, making their identities exceptionally valuable targets. Compromising an agent’s credentials could grant attackers broad authority across systems. Aboul-Magd emphasizes that Zero Trust will evolve into a continuous identity control plane focused on least privilege and short-lived credentials, as static trust models no longer scale. He also identifies emerging vulnerabilities in non-human identities, insecure AI workflows and expanding supply-chain risks within AI stacks, all of which require runtime governance and continuous oversight.
Ram Narayanan, Country Manager for Check Point Software Technologies in the Middle East, concludes that by 2026 AI-driven intrusions will shift from high-volume attacks to highly intelligent, targeted campaigns. He explains that attackers will leverage deepfakes and personalized deception at machine speed, while defenders must embed advanced AI into unified security platforms to maintain prevention-first postures. Narayanan highlights that the next evolution of Zero Trust will focus on securing relationships between users, SaaS applications and APIs across multi-cloud environments. He also warns that “shadow AI” and OT edge devices will become silent entry points if left unmanaged. Unified visibility, contextual enforcement and AI-driven threat intelligence will therefore be essential to securing increasingly autonomous, AI-enabled digital environments in the Middle East.
Christopher Hills, Chief Security Strategist at BeyondTrust, warns that by 2026 autonomous and agentic AI will dramatically reshape the cyber threat landscape by accelerating attacks beyond the pace of traditional defenses. As organizations deploy AI rapidly, security gaps will emerge, giving adversaries opportunities to automate reconnaissance, exploitation and lateral movement at scale. Hills stresses that identity proofing will become the next major evolution in Zero Trust, as synthetic identities and AI‑generated personas make it harder to verify whether a “user” is real. He cautions CIOs and CISOs that unsecured AI itself is becoming a critical vulnerability, with risks such as prompt injection, code manipulation and new attack vectors targeting AI models. Without proactive protection, leaders may face severe consequences.
Kenan Abu Ltaif, Regional Lead for the Middle East and Turkey at Proofpoint, explains that by 2026 autonomous and agentic AI systems will redefine cybersecurity as AI assistants become deeply embedded in workflows. Protecting this new agentic workspace will be essential, extending human‑centric security to safeguard AI agents and their data interactions. He notes that identity security and Zero Trust will evolve to treat AI agents as first‑class identities, shifting from static access rules to continuous trust based on behavior and intent. Abu Ltaif warns that emerging vulnerabilities will stem from AI blind spots, including unmanaged agents, shadow AI, poisoned training data and excessive permissions. With growing data sprawl and limited visibility, lack of transparency around AI data access will become a major security risk in 2026.
Samer El Kodsi, Regional Vice President of Sales for Gulf & North Africa at Palo Alto Networks, explains that by 2026 autonomous and agentic AI systems will dramatically accelerate both cyberattacks and defenses, operating far faster than human response cycles. Attackers will increasingly target AI agents themselves, turning them into high‑impact insider threats, making autonomous, AI‑driven security essential. He notes that identity will become the primary security perimeter, with Zero Trust evolving into continuous, real‑time trust decisions to counter deepfakes and machine‑driven misuse. El Kodsi also warns CIOs and CISOs about emerging risks such as compromised AI systems, corrupted training data, browser‑based attacks and quantum‑era threats. Strong governance, oversight and adaptable encryption strategies will be critical to long‑term resilience.
Laurence Elbana, Director of Sales – Middle East at CyberArk, warns that by 2026 the rapid expansion of autonomous and agentic AI will significantly amplify machine‑identity risks. As organisations automate processes and deploy AI agents at scale, the explosion of digital certificates, API keys and non‑human credentials will widen the attack surface, increasing the likelihood of leaked keys or manipulated agents triggering network‑wide compromise. He highlights that identity security will face further pressure as TLS certificate lifespans shorten in 2026, causing widespread outages from expired or mismanaged certificates and forcing security teams into constant firefighting. Elbana also stresses emerging human‑centric risks, including financially motivated insiders and the growing impact of misinformation, underscoring the need to address both technical and societal factors shaping organisational resilience.