Splunk CISO Report 2026 Discusses AI

The Splunk CISO Report 2026 surveyed 650 global Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), revealing that nearly all CISOs are now responsible for AI governance and risk management. A significant 95% of CISOs cite the growing sophistication of threat actor capabilities as their greatest risk. The report highlights CISOs' rapidly expanding roles and their strategic approach to AI adoption as they face an increasingly complex landscape. CISOs are also concerned about data leaks and security incident liability, with 78% expressing concerns over their own liability for security incidents, a jump from 56% the previous year. Many CISOs are prioritizing improving threat detection and response capabilities (92%), strengthening identity and access management (78%), and investing in AI cybersecurity capabilities (68%). Splunk's report found only 6% of CISOs surveyed have fully deployed agentic AI in security operations, despite the broad agreement it boosts detection and response speeds. Splunk is embedding agentic AI into its security and observability products to automate threat response and streamline IT operations. New features include Triage Agent, Malware Reversal Agent, and AI Playbook Authoring. Splunk Enterprise Security Essentials combines Splunk Enterprise Security 8.2, Splunk AI Assistant in Security, and Detection Studio into one offering.