By Vinayak Godse
AI of today is becoming more precise, better at mathematics, and consuming longer contexts as reasoning becomes central to the models. Multimodality is therefore, by default, and on-device AI is becoming the reality. Moving from generation and interaction, AI is now becoming action oriented. Protocols such as MCP and A2A are rooting AI in the enterprise environments. Whereas agentic AI is evolving from single agents into a collaborative network of specialised agents. Remarkably, all of this happened in a matter of months.
According to a Gartner report, 40% of enterprise applications will be integrated with task-specific AI agents by 2026, up from less than 5% in 2025. Billions of agents will be in service by 2028. What we see now as quarterly model improvements, by 2028, it would be daily improvements due to the self-evolving nature of AI.
While AI is emerging as a transformative force, many other areas within enterprise technologies are also overhauling. Networks would turn into autonomous, high bandwidth fabric driven by technologies like WiFi 7, 1.6 Terabit ethernet with SmartNIC or DPUs (data processing units), high speed networking protocol like NVMe-oF for data hungry apps, edge/OT powered by private 5G, LEO backhaul, and open/programmable switching. Applications are thus seen shifting to durable execution to take care of distributed, long-running, and failure-prone flow of modern business transactions.
But can security systems keep up with these technological advancements? Moreover, the association between business and security is often observed to be at crossroads. The business goals of speed, growth, innovation, and revenue over the years have built frustration against the security’s goal of protection, stability, and risk avoidance. The gradual advancement of technology provided room to adjust, adapt, negotiate, and build convergence. But with the tsunami of technology acceleration, we would be witnessing diminished luxury of time to accommodate and find solutions.
AI frameworks might allow AI models to integrate in a day, but security due diligence takes weeks. The governance cycle typically spans across three to six months. Thus, gaps between expectations of business and what security functions or leaders deliver would widen due to this overwhelming level of technology acceleration.
In the 2020s, time is indeed the armament for businesses. Firms that adapt faster to changing times experience compounded gains, where innovation enhances experience, improves productivity, and creates new possibilities. Early adopters scale rapidly while laggards might get jostled into irrelevance.
Hence, the appeal to security leaders is that, invest your time and efforts in knowing and understanding emerging technologies at a deeper level. If you are already attuned to the next technology primitives, you would prepare for them, develop pre-approved patterns, and contribute to better revenue. You would pre-negotiate clauses and anticipate regulatory directions and responses to build resilience at a scale. Security would then be leveraged not only as an enabler but also as an accelerator to innovation and growth.
Therefore, the hour calls for a fundamental inversion: from defending against emerging threats to forecasting threats that will emerge and thus shape technology decisions.
The writer is CEO, Data Security Council of India.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.