Page 28 - SAMENA Trends - January-February 2025

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Developing and Deploying Secure AI Applications: As AI becomes
ubiquitous, enterprises will use and develop hundreds if not thou-
sands of AI applications. Developers need one set of AI security
and safety guardrails that work for every application. AI Defense
helps developers move fast and unlock greater value by protecting
AI systems from attacks and safeguarding model behavior, across
platforms. The capabilities of AI Defense include:
• Discovering AI: Security teams need to understand who is build-
ing applications and the training sources they use. AI Defense
detects shadow and sanctioned AI applications across public
and private clouds.
• Model Validation: Model tuning can lead to toxic and unexpected
outcomes. Automated testing checks AI models for hundreds of
potential safety and security issues. This AI-driven algorithmic
red team identifies potential vulnerabilities and recommends based on threat intelligence data from Cisco Talos. Splunk cus-
guardrails in AI Defense for security teams to use. tomers that are using AI Defense will receive enriched alerts with
• Runtime Security: Continuous validation safeguards against po- additional context from across the entire ecosystem. AI Defense
tential safety and security threats such as prompt injection, deni- integrates seamlessly with existing data flows for unparalleled visi-
al of service and sensitive data leakage on an ongoing basis. bility and control and is built into the Security Cloud, Cisco's unified,
• Securing Access to AI Applications: As end users rush to adopt AI-driven, cross-domain security platform. It leverages Cisco’s ex-
AI applications like summarization tools to improve their produc- tensive mesh of enforcement points to perform AI security at the
tivity, security teams need to prevent data leakage and the poi- network level in a way only Cisco is optimized to deliver. Accuracy
soning of proprietary data. AI Defense enables security teams and trustworthiness are essential for protecting enterprise AI ap-
with: plications, and Cisco has been actively involved in developing AI
Draft
• Visibility: Provides a comprehensive view of shadow and sanc- security industry standards, including those from MITRE, OWASP,
tioned AI-enabled apps used by employees. and NIST. "The adoption of AI exposes companies to new risks
• Access Control: Implements policies that restrict employee ac- that traditional cybersecurity solutions don't address," said Kent
cess to unsanctioned AI tools. Noyes, Global Head of AI & Cyber Innovation at World Wide Tech-
• Data and Threat Protection: Continuously safeguards against nology. "Cisco AI Defense represents a significant leap forward in
threats and confidential data loss while ensuring compliance. AI security, providing full visibility of an enterprise's AI assets and
Unlike safety guardrails built into individual AI models, Cisco de- protection against evolving threats." AI Defense is the latest in a
livers consistent controls for a multi-model world. AI Defense is series of AI-driven security innovations from Cisco, including Cisco
self-optimizing, leveraging Cisco’s proprietary machine learning Hypershield. Cisco AI Defense will be available in March for enter-
models to detect ever-evolving AI safety and security concerns prises to safeguard their AI transformations.

Cisco Identifies Technology Trends That Will Define 2025

Cisco revealed key technology trends for 2025, emphasizing a Many AI-powered tools in use today are based on static rules or
landscape shaped by shifting consumer behavior, an expanding datasets. Agentic AI differs in that it can continuously learn from
digital ecosystem, and the need to integrate AI. Reflecting these user inputs and make decisions with little to no human oversight.
dynamics, the Middle East emerges as a hub of innovation, Imagine a customer service AI that predicts user needs before a
with rapid adoption of AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and smart city query is made, or a network management AI that identifies poten-
initiatives. IT spending in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) tial issues and resolves them autonomously, ensuring uninterrupt-
region is projected to total $230.7 billion in 2025, an increase of ed service. In response to the rise of Agentic AI, we will see or-
7.4% from 2024, according to Gartner, Inc. David Meads, Vice ganizations implementing mandatory ethical guidelines to ensure
President for the Middle East, Africa, Türkiye, Romania, and CIS at fairness and transparency in algorithmic decisions and protecting
Cisco, commented: “By embracing this year’s technology trends intellectual property. Humanoids and humans collaborating will
with both strategic foresight and pragmatism, companies can force companies to rethink workplace dynamics. AI-powered hu-
effectively navigate challenges and seize growth opportunities.” manoids will form a part of the future workforce. This will force
He added: “The Middle East is witnessing a significant surge in companies to completely reimagine their workplace dynamics. For
technology investment, driven by a strong commitment from both example, companies will need to ensure their connectivity has the
governments and private enterprises aimed at establishing the right levels of latency and throughout to process and analyze data
region as a leader in technological innovation. This rapid adoption in real time. At the same time, organizations must ensure their se-
of technology provides businesses with unique opportunities curity postures. This human and machine collaboration will be in-
to enhance efficiency, boost productivity, improve customer spiring and allow organizations to greatly scale operations but will
experiences, and gain a competitive edge.” also likely trigger concerns about AI replacing jobs. Leaders will
Agentic AI will fulfill AI’s promise of personalization and efficiency. need to be clear and uncompromising about harnessing AI’s power

28 JAN-FEB 2025