AI adoption in cybersecurity lifts SASE market as trust in tools drops

A Fortinet survey shows that 76% of organizations now use artificial intelligence or machine learning to protect IT systems, yet confidence in these tools is low. Only 15% of firms trust AI‑based security, and full satisfaction with security solutions falls to just 5%. Overall trust in existing protections declined from 42% to 29%. More than half of respondents reported at least one application or interface breach in the past year, with 74% noting an increase in AI‑enabled attacks. Detection times are slow: only 20% of breaches are identified within hours, while the majority take a week or longer.

In parallel, the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) market recorded a 21% revenue increase in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing $3 billion, according to Dell’Oro Group. Revenue from Security Service Edge (SSE) grew 22%, driven by enterprises expanding projects to cover SaaS control, data protection, AI usage monitoring and agent policy management. Analysts say AI is reshaping the SASE discussion, moving focus from mere access and inspection to data protection and agent traffic control. Dell’Oro forecasts continued double‑digit growth for SASE through 2026, while MarketsandMarkets projects a 29% annual compound growth rate to 2032.