Singapore organisations are among the world’s most willing to trust AI with autonomous security tasks, yet this confidence has not translated into stronger cyber resilience, according to Arctic Wolf’s 2026 AI & Cybersecurity Trends Report (note: the link requires you to register to access the report).
The study reveals that 61% of Singapore firms experienced a major cyber incident in the past year, with 13% reporting severe disruption lasting six to nine months—more than three times the global rate.
High trust, high risk
The report, based on a survey of 1,350 security and IT decision-makers globally, including in Singapore, highlights a growing disconnect between AI adoption and AI trust. While 94% of organisations now use large language models (LLMs) and another 94% say AI capabilities influence cybersecurity purchasing decisions, only 14% have made AI central to their security operations strategy.
In Singapore, trust in autonomous AI runs ahead of the global average. Sixty per cent of organisations trust agentic AI to independently triage alerts and generate reports, and 56% trust it to patch vulnerabilities without human oversight, compared with a 42% global average. Yet this trust has not yielded better protection outcomes.
“What stands out about Singapore is that organisations here trust AI more than almost anywhere else in the world, and they're also more clear-eyed about its risks,” said Steve Hunter, Director of Engineering, APAC, Arctic Wolf.
“That combination of confidence and caution is the right instinct, but it hasn't yet translated into stronger outcomes. The priority now isn't adopting agentic AI faster, it's building the oversight, governance and human expertise around it so that trust is earned rather than assumed.” Steve Hunter
Persistent cyber risk and overconfidence
Globally, nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents reported experiencing a significant cybersecurity incident within the past year, with almost half (48%) of affected organisations suffering disruptions lasting two weeks or longer. Despite these outcomes, 96% of leaders remain confident their teams can keep pace with the volume and complexity of today's threats.
In Singapore, AI, LLMs, and agentic AI rank as the single leading cybersecurity concern, with 53% citing secure AI adoption and data transformation as their top cybersecurity priority, compared with 41% globally. The skills shortage is also driving organisations toward external support, with 52% of Singapore firms turning to managed services, significantly above the 39% global figure.
The path to trusted AI operations
“Organisations have already decided that AI will play a central role in cybersecurity. The challenge now is trust,” said Adam Marrè, chief information security officer at Arctic Wolf.
“Security leaders want the speed, scale, and efficiency AI can deliver, but they also need confidence that the outcomes are trustworthy, explainable, and aligned to their business.” Adam Marrè
The report underscores that the future of security operations will belong to organisations that combine trusted AI with human expertise to move faster, make better decisions, and build greater resilience.
