STOCKHOLM, Jan. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — According to the findings of a new report from Arelion, a staggering 90 percent of decision makers believe that hackers are more likely to trick AI-based cybersecurity tools than those operated by humans – especially for 34 percent of US and 29 percent of UK business leaders. With enterprise network decision makers in every region and industry sector surveyed identifying AI-related cybersecurity threats as their #1 network challenge, 65 percent of them expect DDoS attacks to be largely driven by AI (as opposed to humans) within four years. Significantly, 25 percent say they are already facing DDoS attacks specifically engineered to circumvent AI-driven cybersecurity defenses.

The report entitled “Artificial Intelligence: Opportunity or Threat for Global Networks?” is based on a survey conducted in the US, UK, France and Germany, and aims to address the overarching question as to whether AI is a boon or a burden for businesses. It highlights the disruptive nature of AI and provides insights into the complex – and sometimes contrary – impacts that enterprise leaders are seeing it have on their organizations and networks.

For example, leaders recognize that AI facilitates a never-ending cycle of attack and defense on the cybersecurity battlefield. Not only does it pose cybersecurity challenges to their network operations but, in turn, 68 percent of business leaders expect DDoS attack mitigation to be largely driven by AI (as opposed to humans) within four years.

AI is living up to the hype
In terms of its overall business impact, the report reveals that AI is living up to the hype that often surrounds it. When measuring the claims for AI against genuine business benefits, over half (55 percent) of senior network decision makers said that they do not believe AI has been overhyped because they are already seeing real benefits from it across their business. While 25 percent of leaders said that they do think that it has been overhyped in the short term, they foresee substantial mid- to long-term benefits from AI.

Additionally, most enterprise network decision makers (68 percent) are comfortable with AI taking an increasing role in their network operations as 63 percent believe that AI will cut network costs over the next three years.

But AI is also raising several major concerns
However, significant reservations were identified among enterprise network decision makers. Citing it as their number one concern, 70 percent of business leaders across the markets and industry verticals stated that AI is making network operations more complex. The second-highest concern is that AI is causing a loss of competency and skills. The degradation of human skills due to AI could exacerbate these existing shortages even further, particularly when considering Arelion’s earlier 2024 report “Doubt, delay and regret: How global disruptors are impacting enterprise networks“, which found that almost half of the enterprise network decision makers surveyed (48 percent) struggle to get staff with a suitable skill set.

42 percent listed increased bandwidth consumption due to AI as their third-highest concern. Business leaders believe that such an increase will be caused by increased network traffic of all types, with almost 1 in 4 predicting an astounding 50-100 percent rise in their core network traffic (UK and Germany), traffic to and from the public internet (UK) and traffic between corporate users and data centers/cloud resources (France).

“Our research revealed that AI is generally a boon for businesses,” surmised Mattias Fridström, Chief Evangelist at Arelion. “However, given that the most significant AI-related threat is cybersecurity, network operators face an ongoing war of attrition with cyber criminals. AI already provides many possibilities for bad actors to target vulnerable areas in a company’s safeguards. Now, they can set a series of protocols to attack relentlessly until it eventually overwhelms cyber defenses.”

He concluded, “But AI also offers cybersecurity solutions. Enterprises looking to mitigate AI’s evolving cyber threats must be prepared for the long haul. These radical, far-reaching impacts of AI mean that enterprise network operators need support. Organizations cannot cope with the complex impacts of AI on their own. They need assistance in the form of external resources, expertise and collaboration – particularly when it comes to cybersecurity.”

Study Methodology
The research was conducted on behalf of Arelion by Savanta, a global leader in digital data collection. An online survey was carried out in the second half of 2024 with 510 industry representatives in the US, UK, Germany and France.

All participants in the research work for enterprises with more than 2,000 employees. They come from a range of industries, led by: Information Services (202); Manufacturing/Engineering (85); Banking (74); Tech/Business services (63). All participants are involved in decision making regarding their company’s network development strategy (including data center, cloud and connectivity), with 60 percent having the final sign-off responsibility for this area.

About Arelion
Arelion solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. On top of the world’s #1 ranked IP backbone and a unique ecosystem of cloud and network service providers, we provide an award-winning customer experience to customers in 128 countries worldwide. Our global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security and content providers with low latency. For further resilience, our private Cloud Connect service connects directly to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud across North America, Europe and Asia.

Discover more at Arelion.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

Contacts:

Arelion
Martin Sjögren, Senior Manager PR and Analyst Relations
+46 (0)707 770 522
martin.sjogren@arelion.com 

Media Contact
Jeannette Bitz, Engage PR
+1 510 295 4972
jbitz@engagepr.com

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SOURCE Arelion