Ayman Hammoudeh, Senior Director, Sales Engineering & Field CISO, International Emerging Markets at Cohesity, predicts organisations will need to restore something much harder to verify: trust in their AI.
In 2027, the challenge for organisations will no longer be simply adopting AI, but ensuring they can trust it. As AI becomes embedded in critical operations, organisations will need to rethink how they defend against cyber threats, protect AI systems and maintain control over increasingly autonomous technologies.
Prediction 1: AI-Powered Threats Will Make Cyber Recovery a Strategic Priority
AI will enable increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, while nation-state and state-sponsored actors will continue to target sensitive data, intellectual property and critical infrastructure. Organisations must prepare not only to prevent attacks, but to recover when their defences fail.
Cohesity’s fifth annual Global Cyber Resilience Report found that 71% of UAE organisations that experienced a material cyberattack in the past 12 months reported that the attack spread beyond their initial assessment. In 2027, organisations will increasingly invest in immutable backups, isolated cyber vaults and clean recovery environments to ensure they can restore operations even when their recovery infrastructure is compromised.
Prediction 2: AI Recovery Will Become as Important as AI Adoption
As AI becomes integral to business operations, restoring applications and infrastructure will no longer be sufficient. Organisations must also ensure their AI models and underlying data remain intact and trustworthy following a cyberattack.
Cohesity’s research found that 88% of UAE organisations that experienced a material cyberattack identified gaps in how their recovery plans accounted for critical dependencies, including AI systems. In 2027, organisations will need to incorporate AI models and data into recovery planning, with processes to validate their integrity before resuming AI-driven operations.
Prediction 3: The CAIO–CISO Partnership Will Become Critical to Trusted AI
As organisations scale AI adoption, the Chief AI Officer (CAIO) and Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) will need to work more closely to balance innovation with security and risk management.
While the CAIO drives AI adoption and business value, the CISO will play a growing role in ensuring AI systems are secure and risks are appropriately managed. Together, they will help organisations establish clear accountability for AI governance and demonstrate that innovation is supported by effective oversight.
For the UAE, where AI adoption is a strategic priority, this partnership will become increasingly important. Organisations that align AI leadership with security from the outset will be better positioned to scale the technology responsibly.
Prediction 4: AI Agents Will Become a New Digital Workforce
Organisations will increasingly move beyond copilots towards autonomous AI agents capable of executing multi-step business tasks. As these agents take on greater responsibilities, organisations will need to define what decisions they can make, which systems they can access and how their actions are monitored.
The challenge will be managing the consequences when agents act unexpectedly or make changes that disrupt business operations. Clear permissions, effective oversight and processes for reversing unintended actions will become essential as organisations integrate AI agents into their workflows.
Prediction 5: Sovereign AI Will Become a Strategic Priority
As AI becomes more central to national infrastructure and business operations, governments and organisations will pay greater attention to where models are trained and hosted, and who controls the underlying infrastructure and data.
For the UAE, continued investment in AI infrastructure creates opportunities to strengthen its position as a regional technology hub. However, AI sovereignty will require more than control over hosting locations. Organisations must also consider the security of their data, the integrity of their models and their ability to maintain critical services if infrastructure is compromised.
Conclusion
As AI adoption accelerates, organisations will need to balance innovation with security, accountability and operational resilience. In 2027, that balance will increasingly distinguish those that simply deploy AI from those equipped to rely on it with confidence.