Gartner Security and Risk Summit 2025: Insights and a Focus on the Future

Integrate AI into security operations, or fall behind and compromise your infrastructure. 

While this may sound extreme, this was a core theme of the AI component of the Gartner Security and Risk Summit for 2025—and we couldn’t be more supportive of this. 

Organizations that are not ready to adopt the changes required to stay competitive in the digital transformation era risk becoming a liability to themselves—but so many are overwhelmed with the options available, the sheer size and scale of the tasks required, and the notion of leaving the familiar. 

But what happens when orgs dare to stand in the gap? 

We got to see a glimpse into the future at Gartner, and think you should, too. Here were our key takeaways that you can reference in your own organization. 

AI Advancement Overwhelm is Real – Getting Granular is the Key to Success

We generated 215 leads at Gartner Security and Risk this year, and many of them told the same story. Their enterprise teams are completely inundated with both requests and demands to be better, smarter, faster, and more competitive with the AI-driven environments out there. It’s too much—but it’s necessary if the organization wants to stay risk-averse. Instead of another AI tool to add to the tech stack, businesses need a way to visualize their entire security stack in totality—which will give them the information they need to pare down, prioritize, and execute well. 

The Breakneck Pace Continues When It Comes to the Digital Transformation 

Keeping on theme, our team saw companies that had completely pivoted their business models—from creating AI agents to building tools that secure the AI agents organizations are already using, as more teams grapple with agents that can go rogue or behave unpredictably.

As 95% of cybersecurity incidents cost between $826 and $653,587 in 2025, and small businesses are expected to accrue $13.82 trillion in cumulative damages in 2028, this transformation likely couldn’t have come at a better time. 

The question many attendees were left with wasn’t “if” they’ll do the same. It was “when.” 

A Key Security Bottleneck in 2025 is Scalability (Or Lack Thereof) 

We had several conversations with vendors and leaders at Gartner Security Summit—many of whom admitted they would want to experiment with proof-of-concept deployments that would further secure the landscape. The primary roadblock to that, though, wasn’t lack of willingness, innovation, or even money—it was a lack of overall scalability. 

A POC would be a tremendous technical lift in the best of times—let alone in times of international upheaval and market volatility. To accomplish a true POC exercise, the companies would be hypothetically deploying across 60,000 users. Most would lack the server capacity, internationalization support, and integration capabilities to do so successfully; highlighting a significant gap between enterprise ambition and infrastructure readiness. 

Our approach at Guardare solves this for both small and mid-sized businesses, as well as enterprise-level clients, as we offer real-time visibility and agentic AI support that helps teams visualize, prioritize, and execute without overwhelming their current systems. 

Strategic Conversations Around Zero Trust and AI Integration Issues Are the First Step to Cross-Industry Security Success 

…and that’s exactly what the Guardare team did with Dr. ZeroTrust himself. 

We did a live podcast and book signing with Dr. ZeroTrust, Chase Cunningham, and dug deep into the most pressing issues around integration and true Zero Trust to date. Topics like implementation support, what cyber success looks like in today’s day and age, and the intersection point of technology capabilities and business strategy were discussed, and listeners were left with a consideration: risk management requires tools that bridge the gap between AI capabilities and practical implementation—and human beings are a collaborative element that helps solve the equation of security. What does success look like for your organization? Only you can decide.

Listen to the full episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/67wvAiJLZn5KyILzOHMbPH?si=CmoBpt_HTHWDl2Knlye0_w&nd=1&dlsi=6e1b6ad4275a4f38

Innovation Dies in Siloed Offices. Collaboration is Key to Moving Forward 

We believe that agentic AI is the future of cybersecurity, especially in the “accountability and transparency era”—and we ensure that the Guardare team continues to advocate for that future wherever we can. Dane Fiori, our Founder, spoke to this effect in an interview held at Gartner and published in the Cybersecurity Tribe web publication. Read the full quote below: 

“It's personal now. CISOs can be criminally charged. They’re realizing they could actually go to jail for ignoring key risks or failing to act on known threats.”

Guardare notes that this risk is met with an equally impressive demand for accountability, transparency, and effectiveness across risk visualization and mitigation areas of business—which is championed by the ultimate goal of 360-degree security awareness, effective containment strategies, and a culture of compliance with the end-user in mind. 

Guardare helps CISOs and executive leaders build a future, just like this—and we look forward to our next opportunity to showcase how other businesses and teams can contribute in both a micro- and macro-scale.