Cybersecurity is the seatbelt for AI, say experts at GISEC 2026
Experts warn AI can only accelerate safely when cybersecurity keeps pace
A car without a seat belt can for sure drive fast, but the real question is- is it safe? The Cybersecurity experts at GISEC 2026, held at Dubai Expo city shared that view. Most organisations find themselves using AI today, accelerating hard with the safety systems yet to catch up.
Cybersecurity is like a seatbelt and brakes for AI, enabling fast progress while ensuring safety and control, according to Pradeep Menon Perinchery, Chief AI and Security Officer at Paramount Assure.
“AI is a vehicle; cyber security is the seat belt that you have to wear in order to go fast. The brakes enable us to go fast, so that it will brake whenever you want to brake,” he said.
Menon added that security today comes built into everyday devices, pointing to mobile security tools now embedded in smartphones as an example. “That is your awareness coming in. It's a product as well as an awareness,” he said.
Inference speed in cybersecurity
Opening the discussion at the event grounds, Yassin Watlal, Head of Systems Engineering and Solutions Architect at CrowdStrike pointed to the accelerating pace of modern cyber threats, noting that the window between an attacker gaining initial access and moving laterally across a network has reduced from hours to mere seconds.
“We measure that time all the way to the lateral movements. So, in terms of our breakout time, we talk about inference speed now: in just a matter of a few seconds, really, on the spot.”Yassin Watlal, Head of Systems Engineering and Solutions Architect @CrowdStrike
Watlal also said that ‘identity monitoring’ is a significant blind spot in an organizational setting, both for human users and agentic AIs. With Agentic AI being a part of the current workforce, these systems carry their own set of privileges and access rights, yet, Watlal said, many organisations fail to properly monitor or control them, leaving a gap that could be exploited if left unaddressed.
Since AI's impact stretches across virtually every function of a business, Menon said, strong cybersecurity isn't a nice-to-have feature but the baseline for real returns from AI.
The takeaway
As the region accelerates its AI ambitions, GISEC 2026 made the case that cybersecurity isn't what slows that journey down, but what makes the journey possible at all. According to the experts, the opportunity AI presents for the region is real, but capturing it depends on building trust into the systems from the start.
