Cisco study: UAE cyber defence advances, but visibility and coordination gaps remain

UAE organisations are adopting AI-powered security at pace and seeing clear improvements in how quickly they detect and respond to threats, according to new research from Cisco.

However, the findings show that organisational factors, including how teams coordinate and how easily they can access security data, remain the main constraint on further progress, as they are globally.

The UAE findings from Cisco’s Relentless Defence Report assess organisations on three areas: how completely they can protect their environment, how quickly they can detect, respond to and remediate threats, and what slows them down. UAE organisations recorded an overall score of 65.7 out of 100, compared with a global average of 63.9. 13% of UAE organisations qualified as Relentless Defenders, the top-performing group, compared with 8% globally.

Fady Younes, Managing Director, Cybersecurity, Cisco Middle East, Türkiye, Africa, Caucasus and Central Asia (METAC) at Cisco, said: “UAE organisations have built a strong technology foundation, and AI is already helping their security teams work faster. The next phase of progress is organisational. When security, network and infrastructure teams share the same visibility and can act on the same data without delay, organisations are better placed to keep pace with threats that are themselves becoming faster. The findings show that removing these barriers matters as much as the technology does”.

AI is accelerating cyber defence in the UAE

Among UAE respondents whose organisations have deployed AI-powered security, 89% report at least a 25% improvement in threat-detection speed. 85% report a similar improvement in their ability to respond to and remediate threats, while 75% say AI-powered security has moderately or significantly reduced their operational burden.

AI agents are also becoming established in UAE security operations. 40% of respondents say they are extensively deployed, and a further 36% say they are operationally deployed in key areas. Globally, just one-third of organisations have extensively deployed AI agents in security operations.

Closer coordination and shared data can unlock further gains

Building on these gains, the findings point to clear opportunities to reduce the organisational friction that UAE security teams share with their global peers:

• Coordination: 41% of UAE organisations say their security and network/infrastructure teams operate as a single coordinated team with shared visibility and tools, in line with 41% globally.
• Data access: 66% say unified security data, providing a single real-time view across the organisation, is one of the ways they manage security data. However, 40% say critical security insights are often missed because data is trapped in silos, and 41% say they spend more time manually collecting and correlating data from different systems than investigating threats.

As AI shortens the time available to respond, addressing these barriers becomes more important. Organisations that can coordinate a human response quickly will be better placed to govern autonomous systems that act in seconds. Through Splunk, organisations can bring security and operational data together, giving teams a more unified view across increasingly complex environments.

UAE organisations are preparing their teams to govern AI

Among UAE respondents using AI agents, 61% say they are very confident in their organisation’s ability to detect and respond to a compromised AI agent or autonomous system. Organisations are also investing in their people: 34% say they are investing heavily in upskilling existing security team members.

For UAE organisations, the report findings point to a clear priority. The technology foundation is in place, and the next gains in speed and resilience will come from closer coordination between teams and more consistent access to security data.

Image Credit: Cisco