Agentic AI: The next cyber defence or offence?

IT HAS not happened yet, but it could. Two artificial intelligence (AI) systems, clashing autonomously in cyberspace. One attacking, the other defending. Each learning, adapting and escalating, without human intervention.

This is the future that agentic AI – autonomous systems capable of decision-making, hypothesis formation and independent action, with minimal human oversight – may bring. An autonomous attacker AI could infiltrate a network, seeking vulnerabilities and deploying attacks that constantly morph to evade detection. Perhaps not tomorrow, but soon enough that organisations must start preparing now. 

While there has not been public evidence of truly autonomous offensive AI systems yet, the likelihood of weaponisation is high. Agentic AI is a rapidly evolving field presenting both immense potential and significant risks.