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Cyber budgets are expected to rise, but the headline is about planned increases—not money already spent. In PwC’s 2027 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey, 84% of surveyed security and finance leaders said they expect cyber budgets to increase over the next 12 months, up from 78% in the previous survey. AI is a major priority, yet many respondents also say they are not prepared for attacks against AI systems.
What PwC’s 84% figure means
The figure measures expectations among surveyed security and finance leaders; it does not mean cybersecurity spending has already risen by 84%, or that budgets will grow by 84%. The 2027 label is the survey edition, not the year the findings were collected: PwC conducted the survey from May through July 2026 and published the results on October 1, 2026. The previous survey found 78% expected an increase. PwC’s October 1, 2026 press release reports the headline comparison.
PwC says the survey gathered responses from 3,934 business and technology executives in 71 countries and territories. These are respondent-reported expectations and priorities, not audited budget records or proof that AI threats caused budgets to increase. The companion findings page provides additional survey detail.
Why AI is shaping cyber priorities
AI appears both as an investment priority and as a source of exposure. PwC reports that 58% of security leaders rank AI among their top cyber budget priorities. Separately, the survey identifies several leading influences on cyber-spend priorities:
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- Data protection and trust: 51%.
- Protection against AI-enabled attacks: 46%.
- Securing AI and autonomous agents: 45%.
Those spending influences are distinct from the AI-enabled defensive capabilities respondents want to prioritize: threat detection and alerting (50%), fraud detection (43%), and phishing detection and response (42%). These figures describe priorities, not evidence that the capabilities have been funded or deployed.
Preparedness has not kept pace with concern
Half of security leaders identify attacks targeting AI systems among the threats they are least prepared to address. Respondents also cite autonomous botnets (53%), adversarial attacks (52%), and data poisoning (52%) as AI-enabled attacks they are least ready for. Other leading concerns include cloud-related threats (40%), third-party breaches (34%), and ransomware (33%). The percentages reflect survey respondents’ assessments of preparedness, not measured attack frequency.
PwC’s broader resilience findings point to a gap between intent and readiness. Only 39% of security, risk, and operations leaders say they have a fully formalized and integrated operational continuity plan that specifically addresses cyber risks. Respondents report implementing an average of three of seven surveyed data-risk measures; 5% say they have fully implemented all measures, down from 7% in the previous survey.
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Where leaders draw the line on autonomous defense
Respondents are not broadly ready to hand defensive decisions to AI agents without human involvement. PwC reports that 22% would authorize fully autonomous execution, 38% would allow partial autonomy, and 36% prefer human-led action with AI support. These reported approaches do not establish how organizations actually deploy agents in production.
Respondents show greater comfort with agents handling bounded, routine tasks: 49% are most comfortable authorizing threat-intelligence enrichment and correlation, 47% phishing-email quarantine or deletion, and 46% malware removal and system remediation. That comfort should not be read as blanket approval for unsupervised action.
Trust and governance remain obstacles. Technology reliability and maturity is a top-three barrier to greater autonomy for 55% of respondents; 46% cite accountability and explainability. Among CISOs, 44% identify workforce skills in AI oversight and governance as a leading barrier.
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What managed security services may address
Managed services are one possible way to access capabilities organizations do not have fully in-house. PwC says leaders’ priorities for managed security services include AI (53%), cloud security (49%), data protection and trust (42%), and threat management (39%). The survey indicates areas of demand; it does not endorse a provider or show that outsourcing alone closes a preparedness gap.
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For an organization evaluating an investment, useful questions include:
- Does the capability protect AI systems, use AI for defense, or both?
- Does it address the organization’s priority risks—such as data protection, AI-enabled attacks, cloud security, or threat management?
- Which work will a managed provider deliver, and which responsibilities remain in-house?
- What human approval, validation, and rollback controls apply to an agent’s actions?
- How will the investment support continuity planning, accountability, and governance?
These are practical evaluation questions, not a PwC vendor-scoring framework. PwC’s own suggested themes include cyber governance and accountability, protection of critical operations and resilience, securing data and AI, managing third-party and technology concentration risks, and human oversight of defensive agents.
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What the survey can—and cannot—tell organizations
The findings suggest that many surveyed leaders expect higher cyber budgets and are directing attention toward AI-related risks and capabilities. They do not show how much any organization will spend, which controls will receive funding, or whether increased spending will improve security outcomes. The combination of budget expectations and reported readiness gaps makes implementation and accountability important questions alongside the size of an allocation.
As PwC’s Avinash Rajeev, Global Cyber, Data & Tech Risk Leader, PwC US, put it: “The ultimate goal of cybersecurity is not just to protect the business, but to give the business the confidence to move forward. As organisations race to capture the value of AI, cyber resilience needs to become a business capability, embedded in C-suite decision-making from the outset.”
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