SandboxAQ Report: AI Adoption Outpacing AI Security
Despite widespread use of AI, only 6% have implemented a comprehensive, AI-native security strategy
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- SandboxAQ today released its inaugural AI Security Benchmark Report, revealing a significant disconnect between enterprise AI adoption and cybersecurity readiness. While 79% of organizations are already using AI in production environments, only 6% have implemented a comprehensive, AI-native security strategy, leaving the vast majority of enterprises vulnerable to threats they are not yet equipped to detect or mitigate.
Based on a survey of more than 100 senior security leaders across the US and EU, the report highlights widespread concern about the risks AI introduces, from model manipulation and data leakage to adversarial attacks and the misuse of non-human identities (NHIs). Yet despite growing anxiety among CISOs, only 28% of organizations have conducted a full AI-specific security assessment, and most are still relying on traditional, rule-based tools that were never designed to address dynamic, machine-speed systems.
Key findings include:
- Only 6% of organizations have implemented AI-native security protections across both IT and AI systems.
- 74% of security leaders are highly concerned about AI-enhanced cyberattacks, and 69% are highly concerned about AI uncovering new vulnerabilities in their environments.
- Just 10% of companies have a dedicated AI security team; in most organizations, responsibility falls to traditional IT or security teams.
The rise of NHIs, which include autonomous AI agents, services, and machine accounts, has further complicated the security landscape. These systems often operate independently, holding and exchanging cryptographic credentials, accessing sensitive resources, and interacting with other software without human oversight. Most security teams lack visibility into these entities or control over their behaviors, undermining core principles of Zero Trust and exposing gaps in identity governance and cryptographic hygiene.
The report's findings mirror what SandboxAQ has seen across large-scale cryptographic environments and AI deployments: enterprises are struggling to extend core security practices like automated inventory, visibility, and policy enforcement to the identities and assets that AI systems rely on. Through solutions like AQtive Guard, enterprises are able to modernize cryptographic and identity governance in this new layer of infrastructure with the same urgency they once applied to traditional IT.
"This isn't just a solution gap, it's a conceptual one," said Marc Manzano, General Manager of the Cybersecurity Group at SandboxAQ. "AI is radically changing the cybersecurity paradigm at an unprecedented speed. This report highlights a growing recognition among security leaders that defending against evolving threats requires new assumptions and approaches, not just new layers or patches to current tooling."
Despite these gaps, investment is accelerating. Eighty-five percent of organizations plan to increase AI security spending in the next 12 to 24 months, with a quarter planning significant increases. Areas of focus include protecting training data and inference pipelines, securing non-human identities, and deploying automated incident response capabilities tailored to AI-driven infrastructure.
The 2025 AI Security Benchmark Report is based on survey data collected in April 2025 by GLG Insights, across highly regulated sectors, including financial services, healthcare, technology, and telecom. To see the full report, visit The 2025 AI Security Benchmark Report.
About SandboxAQ
SandboxAQ is a B2B company delivering solutions at the intersection of AI and quantum techniques. The company's Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) deliver critical advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, and other sectors. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth-backed company funded by leading investors including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., IQT, US Innovative Technology Fund, S32, Hillspire Capital, Breyer Capital, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, Paladin Capital Group, and others. For more information, visit http://www.sandboxaq.com.
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