Organizations in the Philippines and across Asia Pacific (APAC) are increasing investments in artificial intelligence (AI) for cybersecurity as companies struggle to manage growing cyber threats, according to a study commissioned by cybersecurity company Fortinet.
The study, conducted by Forrester Consulting, found that 91% of organizations plan to increase their AI budgets for cybersecurity, with many expecting AI to help improve threat detection, speed up response times, and reduce manual work.
However, the report also showed that many organizations are still not fully prepared to handle growing cyber risks.
About 57% of organizations said AI-driven cyber threats are now among their top concerns. At the same time, 54% said that fragmented security systems and tools were major challenges, while 50% said the number of security alerts makes it difficult to identify real threats.
The study also found that almost half of organizations still rely heavily on manual cybersecurity processes, slowing their ability to respond to attacks.
“Customers today are dealing with increasingly complex environments, where fragmented tools, limited visibility, and growing alert volumes are making it harder to detect and respond to threats effectively,” said Bambi Escalante, country manager of Fortinet Philippines.
The findings suggest that many companies are investing in AI while still struggling with outdated or disconnected security systems.
Only 20% of organizations currently operate on a unified cybersecurity platform, but that number is expected to grow to 59% within the next two years as companies move to simplify operations and reduce the number of separate security tools they manage.
Organizations said the shift to platform-based security is because of the need to improve integration, reduce operational complexity, and better manage hybrid work and cloud environments.
Still, many companies remain cautious. Around 51% cited migration costs and operational disruption as barriers to consolidating their cybersecurity systems.
“Without unified visibility and connected data across environments, AI risks amplifying complexity rather than reducing it,” Rashish Pandey, VP of Marketing and Communications, APAC, of Fortinet, said.
