AI in cybersecurity: adopt with ambition, govern with discipline
Abdulrahman Al Nazari · Director of Cybersecurity & Information Protection · November 2026Artificial intelligence is changing both sides of cybersecurity. Attackers use it to write convincing phishing messages, clone voices and find weaknesses faster. Defenders use it to detect anomalies, prioritise alerts and respond at machine speed.
For CISOs, the question is no longer whether to use AI, but how to use it responsibly.
My view is simple: adopt with ambition, govern with discipline.
- Start with clear use cases. Alert triage, threat intelligence summarisation and
vulnerability prioritisation deliver value quickly and keep humans in control of decisions.
- Protect the data that feeds the models. Sensitive information, especially health and
personal data, must never leave approved environments or be used to train external tools without proper safeguards and legal basis.
- Keep humans accountable. AI can recommend; people decide. Every automated action needs an
owner, an audit trail and a way to reverse it.
- Govern AI like any other critical system. Inventory the AI tools in use, assess their risks,
and include them in policy, procurement and awareness programmes.
The UAE has set an ambitious national direction on AI. Security leaders have a responsibility to make sure that ambition is matched by trust.