At this year’s NTSC 2025 8th Annual National CISO Policy Conference, cybersecurity leaders made it clear what the next level of AI threat is and that it’s right here, right now, reshaping how we defend against (and fall victim to) cyber threats.
You thought ChatGPT was impressive? Get ready to meet its overachieving cousin: pervasive Agentic AI — artificial intelligence that doesn’t wait for prompts. It acts. It plans. It executes. And it’s about to make your cybersecurity nightmare a lot more real.
In the past 60 days, we’ve seen innovations like China’s DeepSeek, an LLM that’s 90% as good as GPT-4 but runs on outdated chips. Or Google’s Gemini 3, which left its predecessor looking like a glorified calculator. These tools are setting the stage for something far more autonomous — and far more dangerous.
Traditional AI models, like those most people use today, require human input to provide prompts. Agentic AI flips that on its head. These systems are capable of autonomous action — essentially robots building and deploying other robots.
Imagine a world where AI doesn’t wait for an instruction to monitor for phishing attempts. It simply detects, reacts, and moves on to the next threat. That’s great for defenders — but it’s even better for attackers.
Let’s talk real-world danger. Voice-based scams have already made headlines — fake CEOs demanding wire transfers, AI-generated kidnappings, and other deepfake dramas. Until now, the tech was clunky, with poor sound quality, weird pauses, and a robotic tone.
That’s changing — fast.
In the next six months, agentic AI combined with hyper-realistic voice synthesis will allow real-time conversations with fake people. Scammers will replicate your boss’s voice, charm their way past your finance team, and walk off with six figures — all before lunch.
The voice won’t sound fake. The conversation won’t feel delayed. And the damage? Very, very real.
At the NTSC conference in Washington, CISOs from major US companies weren’t shy: This is the most significant disruption in cybersecurity history. You can’t buy your way out of it with tech alone. What’s needed now is a new operating model — one built on:
Think less “castle wall,” more “ant colony.” Every employee — from IT to intern — has to be alert, cooperative, and resilient.
Ironically, the greatest tech revolution in security may be undone by the same problem we’ve had for years: humans.
Employees are still the weakest link. And with agentic AI increasing the speed, sophistication, and believability of attacks, even one careless click can become catastrophic.
It’s not about just training harder. It’s about training smarter — empowering your people to recognize threats, ask questions, and act fast. Unfortunately, most organizations aren’t moving fast enough to adapt.
The coming months won’t be business as usual for cybersecurity teams. The enemy is more agile, more intelligent, and increasingly autonomous.
Companies that treat cybersecurity as a “tech problem” are going to lose. Companies that build organization-wide resilience, however, have a fighting chance.
That’s where Aware Force comes in.
We don’t just create cybersecurity content. We build human awareness — translating high-risk threats into real-world action for your entire workforce. While others rely on flawed LLMs and hope for the best, we combine subject matter expertise with journalistic accuracy to create content your team actually understands — and remembers.
Source: NTSC Conference 2025 – The Next Six Months of Cyber Threats
