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What does PwC’s 84% figure mean?
In PwC’s 2027 Global Digital Trust Insights Survey, 84% of surveyed security and finance leaders said they expect cyber budgets to increase over the following 12 months. The comparable figure in the prior survey was 78%. This is a measure of expectations, not a finding that budgets have already risen or that spending will increase by 84%.
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The survey was conducted from May through July 2026 and published on October 1, 2026. Its “2027” label is the survey edition designation. PwC says it collected responses from 3,934 business and technology executives across 71 countries and territories. The 84% budget expectation applies to security and finance leaders; PwC’s separate AI-spending figure applies to security leaders.
These are respondent-reported views from PwC’s survey, not audited budgets, measured cybersecurity outcomes, or proof that AI threats caused planned increases. PwC’s survey findings provide the wider context behind the headline.
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What are security leaders prioritizing?
AI is prominent both as a reason to direct spending and as a security capability leaders want to develop. PwC reports that 58% of security leaders rank AI among their top cyber budget priorities. The survey also identifies several influences on cyber-spend priorities:
- Data protection and trust: 51%
- Protection against AI-enabled attacks: 46%
- Securing AI and autonomous agents: 45%
Those spending influences are distinct from the AI-enabled defensive capabilities respondents prioritize: threat detection and alerting (50%), fraud detection (43%), and phishing detection and response (42%). The figures show reported priorities, not a prescribed allocation of funds or a comparison of specific tools.
Where do leaders see the biggest preparedness gaps?
Half of security leaders say they are least prepared to address attacks targeting AI systems. Other cited threats they feel unprepared for include cloud-related threats (40%), third-party breaches (34%), and ransomware (33%). Within AI-enabled attacks, respondents also point to autonomous botnets (53%), adversarial attacks (52%), and data poisoning (52%) as areas of low readiness.
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PwC’s findings suggest that expected budget growth is not the same as operational resilience. Only 39% of security, risk, and operations leaders say they have a fully formalized and integrated operational continuity plan that specifically addresses cyber risks. Respondents report implementing an average of three of seven surveyed data-risk measures, and 5% say they have fully implemented all measures, down from 7% in the prior survey.
How much autonomy are leaders willing to give defensive AI?
Respondents remain cautious about allowing AI agents to take security actions without human involvement. PwC reports three distinct levels of willingness:
| Approach to defensive AI agents | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Authorize fully autonomous execution | 22% |
| Permit partial autonomy | 38% |
| Prefer human-led action with AI support | 36% |
The survey’s leading barriers help explain that caution: 55% rank AI reliability and maturity among their top three barriers to greater autonomy, and 46% cite accountability and explainability. Separately, 44% of CISOs identify workforce skills in AI oversight and governance as a top barrier.
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Respondents are more comfortable with agents in narrower, defined tasks: 49% are most comfortable authorizing threat-intelligence enrichment and correlation, 47% phishing-email quarantine or deletion, and 46% malware removal and system remediation. Those figures indicate relative comfort with specified activities; they do not amount to general approval for unsupervised action.
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Can managed services help address capability gaps?
Managed security services are one potential way organizations seek capabilities they may not have in-house. PwC says leaders prioritize the following areas for managed security services:
| Priority area | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| AI | 53% |
| Cloud security | 49% |
| Data protection and trust | 42% |
| Threat management | 39% |
PwC’s survey does not endorse a particular provider, and these results do not establish that outsourcing is the right choice for every organization. For a buyer comparing options, practical questions include whether a service protects AI systems or uses AI for defense, what work remains in-house, how human approval and validation are handled for automated actions, and whether the capability supports continuity planning and governance.
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What the survey does—and does not—show
The results point to a tension: organizations anticipate higher cyber budgets as AI adoption and related risks gain attention, yet reported readiness measures remain uneven and enthusiasm for fully autonomous defense is limited. Budget intentions alone cannot show whether the additional resources will close those gaps. That depends on how organizations turn spending into specific capabilities, tested continuity plans, data-risk controls, and accountable oversight.
PwC’s release attributes to Avinash Rajeev, Global Cyber, Data & Tech Risk Leader at PwC US, the view that cybersecurity should give a business confidence to move forward and that resilience should be embedded in executive decisions as organizations adopt AI. That is PwC’s recommendation, rather than an independently tested conclusion of the survey. PwC’s press release presents the findings and its suggested actions.
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