Optimising Budget: How To Increase Cybersecurity Team Efficiency With AI

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) As security teams face mounting pressure from talent shortages, alert fatigue, and rising threats, AI is emerging as a practical tool to streamline operations and deliver stronger protection without expanding headcount

Published: Tue 12 May 2026, 10:00 AM

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Generative AI and increasingly capable bots have kickstarted a battle in the job market.

Goldman Sachs predicts 300 million jobs could be lost to automation¹

More than 40% of IT security pros say their organisation's security teams are understaffed²

This has left organisations seeking cost-efficient ways to maintain effective protection and some consider AI the answer to this skills shortage.

The challenge is not simply deploying more security tools but ensuring cybersecurity delivers measurable operational value. This is where approaches such as Kaspersky's Cybersecurity True to Business vision are becoming increasingly relevant, focusing on stronger protection, lower operational complexity and more efficient use of security resources.

But while AI can help specialists better manage alerts, automating a security operations center (SOC) fully would require machines to take abstract concepts across different situations and reframe them – a level of critical thought that belongs to people.

Head of Unified Platform at Kaspersky, Ilya Markelov, says,“In large enterprises, full automation isn't possible because of the huge, ever-changing infrastructures. A dedicated team is still required to monitor rules that can become obsolete overnight.”

This practical balance between automation and human expertise reflects the True to Business approach: using technologies such as AI to reduce routine workload, improve efficiency and help organizations maintain effective protection without proportionally increasing resources.

Security analysts are stretched thin and burning out

SOCs face burnout as they fight increasingly complex and frequent attacks. Major contributors include alert fatigue, repetitive work and stress. Business leaders are seeking solutions such as increasing headcount – but increased hiring is neither cheap nor easy, and even maintaining staff is challenging.

A quarter of IT security staff feel they must leave their business to escape burnout³

83% of IT security pros say their department has made burnout-related errors that led to a breach⁴

Kaspersky AI reduces analyst workload so teams can focus on critical threats

Kaspersky's AI-driven solutions alleviate pressure on security teams by managing time-intensive tasks, such as automating triage and initial response steps. They also enable lesser-skilled staff to assume more complex tasks.

Markelov says,“Kaspersky AI helps to reduce burnout by minimising routine work, with the system offering actions the user can simply accept or reject. Automation also saves resources. For example, playbooks (fully automated chains of action) can be triggered to deal with threats automatically.”

One good example is the AI Analyst in Kaspersky Managed Detection and Response, which helps to reduce the workload of SOC teams by automatically filtering out false positives, allowing experts to respond to threats faster and avoid burnout.

Elsewhere, Kaspersky Machine Learning for Anomaly Detection (MLAD), a predictive analytics software solution, is helping industrial enterprises to avoid the costs associated with downtime, as it picks up early signs of impending equipment failure, process disruption, human error or cyberattack.

Augmentation, not just automation: AI and humans in tandem

Kaspersky's AI enables security teams to achieve more, such as shutting down complex, targeted attacks. But while it can operate semi-freely and make suggestions, it is still directed by an expert who will always have the final say. This means humans can verify or dismiss alerts with the context that AI lacks (e.g., business operations, one-off tasks), reducing unnecessary disruptions and the workload that accompanies them.

Kaspersky's belief is that its AI should make cybersecurity more human – not less. It is an empowering tool designed for usability, with simple dashboards, explainable decisions and automated detection and response. This reduces security team workloads and enables less experienced staff to do more, saving businesses money on expensive hires.

Markelov explains,“The number of threats, attacks and unique malware samples increases every year. Beyond this, infrastructure complexity is also increasing as organizations adopt new systems and open new offices. To address this growing complexity, our solutions implement AI and automation, eliminating the need for organisations to grow security teams proportionately.”

Kaspersky builds AI solutions to augment human defenders, helping security teams stay effective under growing alert volumes while controlling operational workload and cost.

Ultimately, the True to Business approach ensures that every AI capability Kaspersky builds is designed to relieve the burden on security teams rather than add to it. By empowering defenders to work more efficiently, Kaspersky ensures security posture doesn't hold businesses back.
Discover how to turn cybersecurity from a daily operational task into a seamless driver of the business growth at Kaspersky website

^1. Goldman Sachs. Generative AI Could Raise Global GDP by 7%. (Goldman Sachs, 2023).

^2. Kaspersky. The Portrait of Modern Information Security Professional. (Kaspersky Daily, 2024).

^3. Kaspersky, The Portrait of Modern Information Security Professional, (Kaspersky, 2024)
^4. Devo. 83% of IT Security Professionals Say Burnout Causes Data Breaches. (Devo, 2023).

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