10 Top Cybersecurity CEOs On AI’s Impact In 2026 - crn.com

HOME ▸ NEWS ▸ SECURITY ▸ 2026 ▸ 10 TOP CYBERSECURITY CEOS ON AI’S IMPACT IN 2026 Security 10 Top Cybersecurity CEOs On AI’s Impact In 2026 BY KYLE ALSPACH JANUARY 20, 2026, 2:00 PM EST From agentic-powered security to emerging AI opportunities for partners, here’s what the CEOs from 10 leading cybersecurity vendors are expecting this year. SHARE THIS AI And Security In 2026 In 2026, CEOs at major cybersecurity vendors are continuing to accelerate their deployment of AI across their product portfolios, with a strong focus on bringing agentic-powered security to the fore. At the same time, the continued spread of AI-driven social engineering—and first signs of attacks that are almost entirely autonomous—are underscoring why cyber defense needs to move even faster to stay ahead of the threats, according to top cybersecurity CEOs. [Related: The 10 Hottest AI Security Tools Of 2025] As part of CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 report, CEOs from 10 top cybersecurity companies—including both established giants and fast-growing startups—provided their perspective on AI’s impact on the market and AI channel opportunities 2026. Many warned that the AI-powered intensification of attacks is just getting started. And yet the increased volume of attacks is already overwhelming stretched security teams, the CEOs noted. At the same time, the rise of autonomous agents that can handle entry-level security tasks creates a massive opportunity for organizations to automate more of their security—which many customers will be looking to solution and service provider partners to enable. All in all, “a major challenge for partners in 2026 will be achieving strong go-to-market alignment with vendors equipped to counter the surge in AI-driven email and cyberattacks,” said Evan Reiser, co-founder and CEO at Abnormal AI, in written comments provided as part of CRN’s CEO Outlook 2026 report. “As these risks intensify, the demand for effective defenses will only accelerate.” SentinelOne Co-founder and CEO Tomer Weingarten, meanwhile, put it this way: “In 2026, AI will be the ultimate force multiplier for our partner ecosystem.” Among the other CEO respondents from top cybersecurity vendors were Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry, Fortinet CEO Ken Xie, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince and Darktrace CEO Jill Popelka. CRN posed the question: What impact do you expect AI to have on the business you and your partners do together in 2026? What follows are the written answers provided by 10 top cybersecurity CEOs. KYLE ALSPACH Kyle Alspach is a Senior Editor at CRN focused on cybersecurity. His coverage spans news, analysis and deep dives on the cybersecurity industry, with a focus on fast-growing segments such as security operations, AI security and identity protection. He can be reached at kalspach@thechannelcompany.com Application and Platform Security Cloud Security Cybersecurity Endpoint Security Managed Security Managed Service Providers Data Protection Network Security AI Artificial Intelligence Generative AI Security operations AI Agents LLM Oracle Layoffs Hit Sales, Engineering, Security: 5 Things To Know TD Synnex CEO On Record Quarter, Seeing ‘Lots Of Tailwinds In The Market’ NetBox Labs Builds On Rapid Channel Momentum With Ahead Partnership Partners: Oracle Layoffs Are ‘Huge’ Channel Opportunity Lexful CEO: Why AI-Native Documentation Is The Next Big Growth Lever For MSPs TO TOP