Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025 Reveals KSA’s Proactive Approach to AI Security Amid Rapid Adoption
- 60% of KSA organizations are highly aware of AI-specific security threats, with over half (51%) already deploying AI to enhance cybersecurity defenses.
- KSA organizations are rapidly scaling AI adoption, with 91% planning to deploy AI agents and 68% reporting tangible gains in profitability, productivity, and innovation from their AI investments.
- Over a third (39%) of organizations in the Kingdom are integrating AI directly into their security and identity systems, demonstrating growing confidence in controlling and securing AI agents.
Ahead of Black Hat MEA in Riyadh from 2-4 December 2025, Cisco, the worldwide leader in networking and security, today released the KSA findings from the third annual Cisco AI Readiness Index, highlighting how organizations in the Kingdom are leveraging AI to strengthen cybersecurity and respond to emerging AI-driven threats.
The Cisco AI Readiness Index 2025 is a global study, now in its third year, based on a double-blind survey of 8,000 senior IT and business leaders responsible for AI strategy at organizations with over 500 employees across 26 industries.
As AI becomes more prevalent, KSA organizations are prioritizing security. According to the Index, a significant 60% of respondents are highly aware of AI-specific threats, with 51% actively deploying AI to enhance cybersecurity capabilities, including faster threat detection, response, and recovery.
More organizations are embedding AI directly into their security architecture. In KSA, 39% of organizations are integrating AI into their security and identity systems, and a further 39% say they are fully equipped to control and secure AI agents across their environments. Together, these figures show that many KSA organizations are moving beyond experimentation and now embedding and governing AI as part of their core security approach.
The Index also reveals that AI adoption in the Kingdom is scaling at pace. In KSA, 91% of organizations plan to deploy AI agents, and 40% expect these agents to work alongside employees within the next year. At the same time, 68% already report gains across profitability, productivity and innovation because of AI investments, underscoring AI’s growing impact on business outcomes.
“Saudi Arabia is making strong progress in embedding AI across its economy in line with Vision 2030,” said Fady Younes, Managing Director for Cybersecurity at Cisco Middle East, Africa, Türkiye, Romania and CIS. “Our latest AI Readiness Index reveals KSA organizations are not just rapidly scaling AI but are critically adopting a proactive stance on protecting AI, data, and identities.
Cisco is powering this secure evolution with our AI-ready infrastructure and next-generation security solutions. At Black Hat MEA, we look forward to engaging directly with our customers and partners to explore practical strategies for strengthening cyber resilience in the AI era.”
At this year’s premier cybersecurity event, Cisco will spotlight its latest innovations where security meets the network, with solutions powered by the combined strengths of Cisco Security and Splunk. The company will engage customers, partners, and security practitioners on strategies to build secure, AI-ready infrastructure and modern security operations to defend against AI-driven threats.
Attendees will see how organizations can protect identities, secure AI agents, and gain end-to-end visibility across hybrid environments as they adopt and scale AI. Cisco will showcase solutions for the AI era, including AI Defense, Hybrid Mesh Firewall and Universal Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) that simplify policy management, enhance visibility, and help enterprises scale securely. Additionally, Cisco will highlight advancements in Splunk integrations that unify data across platforms and empower security teams to automate tasks and respond faster to threats.
Visitors are invited to experience these innovations firsthand at the Cisco Booth, Stand D40-H1.
