'Platformisation is a myth.'

Cybersecurity industry analyst Richard Stiennon at IT-Harvest says artificial intelligence is reshaping the future of digital defence at a pace most organisations still don't fully understand and legacy security vendors could be in serious hot water if they fail to adapt.

The longtime Analyst and Founder at IT-Harvest argued that AI is no longer just another trend inside cybersecurity, it is now "overshadowing" every other major movement in the industry.

Stiennon explained the AI security market has split into two major categories: securing AI systems themselves, and using AI to automate and strengthen cybersecurity operations.

The first focuses on protecting organisations from employees leaking sensitive data into AI tools, while also defending large language models from prompt injection and manipulation attacks. The second category, which Stiennon believes will have the biggest impact which centres on AI-powered security automation.

“Platformisation is not a trend. There's 4,000 vendors out there and there's no platform that can do it all and there never will be.”

— Richard Stiennon, IT-Harvest

According to Stiennon, the sector has exploded so quickly that IT-Harvest is now tracking 354 AI security vendors after only formally monitoring the category for just over a year. The analyst warned that many security leaders still underestimate the pace AI capabilities are advancing.

Stiennon also said AI agents are poised to fundamentally reshape security operations centres (SOCs) by automating a significant share of analyst work that still depends on human intervention. He pointed to a new wave of AI-native security startups building systems that can operate with minimal oversight like triaging alerts, investigating suspicious activity, opening and managing cases, orchestrating remediation and integrating with the wider security toolchain.

Despite the automation wave, Stiennon argued security professionals are unlikely to disappear entirely, instead shifting toward higher order tasks such as training AI agents, threat intelligence and strategic defence operations.

The veteran analyst also took aim at the cybersecurity industry's ongoing push toward "platformisation," where major vendors attempt to consolidate multiple security functions into unified ecosystems or a 'single pane of glass'.

Stiennon called the trend misleading, arguing organisations still rely heavily on best of breed tools rather than a single dominant platform.