Key facts
- IBM India VP argues AI must be used to defend against AI-powered cyberattacks
- Traditional security approaches increasingly inadequate against AI threats
- India facing surge in cyberattacks on public and private infrastructure
- Rapid digitalisation has significantly expanded India's cyber attack surface
Artificial intelligence has become both the most powerful weapon in a cybercriminal's arsenal and the most essential tool in a defender's, according to IBM India's Vice President, who made the case bluntly to The Indian Express: organisations must now fight AI with AI or risk being outmanoeuvred.
The executive's comments reflect a rapidly shifting threat landscape. Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI to automate attacks, generate convincing phishing content, identify vulnerabilities at speed, and evade conventional security systems. The result is an asymmetric challenge for defenders who rely on rule-based or human-led monitoring processes that simply cannot match the pace of AI-powered offensives.
For India, the stakes are particularly high. The country has seen a significant increase in cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure, financial institutions, and government systems. India's rapid digitalisation — from UPI payments to Aadhaar-linked services — has expanded the attack surface considerably, making robust cyber defence a matter of national importance as well as commercial urgency.
IBM's position is that AI-powered security tools — capable of detecting anomalies, predicting attack vectors, and responding in real time — are no longer optional for enterprises of any meaningful scale. The VP's intervention is as much a market argument as it is a warning, but the underlying point resonates widely: in the age of generative AI, the cybersecurity industry is entering a new and more dangerous era.