The vast majority of global organizations are struggling to keep up with the increasing speed and complexity of cyber offensives powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). This is revealed by CrowdStrike’s “State of Ransomware 2025” report, which highlights that 76% of organizations globally have significant difficulty matching speed and sophistication of the attacks of ransomware directed by this technology.
The study highlights that the future of cybersecurity is no longer a matter of static protection, but rather a dynamic battle where the advantage lies in who handles AI better: cybercriminals or security teams. Given this gap, the need for modernization is critical, with an overwhelming 89% of respondents considering AI-based protection essential to closing the current gap.
“Since the development of malware to social engineering, cybercriminals are using AI as a weapon to accelerate all phases of attacks, drastically reducing the response time of security managers,” says Elia Zaitsev, CTO of CrowdStrike.
Traditional defenses are left behind
The data in the report demonstrate that conventional defense strategies are becoming obsolete in the face of the evolution of the ransomware. A significant 48% of the organizations consulted identify AI-automated attack chains as the biggest threat of ransomware currently. In line with this fear, 85% of respondents maintain that traditional detection is losing effectiveness compared to new AI-powered tactics.
The speed of execution of these attacks is a critical factor and generates great concern. Nearly 50% of organizations seriously fear that they will not be able to detect or respond quickly enough to AI-powered attacks launched against them. This lack of agility has direct and costly consequences: less than a quarter of organizations manage to recover from an incident in less than 24 hours. Additionally, about 25% of victims experience an operational disruption or significant data loss as a result of the ransomware.
The transformation of social engineering
AI not only optimizes the technical execution phase of the attack, but also revolutionizes the initial deception phase. He phishing It remains one of the main attack vectors. However, 87% of security professionals say AI makes hoaxes substantially more convincing and difficult to identify. Furthermore, the report warns of a new emerging threat: deepfakes are establishing themselves as a key factor in the planning and execution of future attacks of ransomware.
Another crucial finding addresses the ineffectiveness of giving in to cybercriminals’ demands. 83% of organizations that chose to pay a ransom to recover their systems were attacked again. Even more telling is that 93% of these organizations suffered data theft, regardless of whether they paid the requested ransom.
Executive Disengagement and Autonomous Response
The cybersecurity challenge is complicated by a lack of alignment at the management level. The report highlights a significant “leadership disconnect”: 76% of respondents report a gap between senior management’s perception of their preparedness for the ransomware and the actual preparation of the organization. This gap underscores the urgency of an executive-level commitment to modernize and boost defenses.
To counter the speed advantage gained by attackers, CrowdStrike proposes an autonomous and proactive approach. Through its Agentic Security Platform, CrowdStrike’s Agentic Security Workforce seeks to put security managers ahead in the race for superiority in the use of AI. This solution provides the speed, intelligence and automation necessary to stop threats and operations. ransomware based on AI before they can disrupt, encrypt or extort.
This platform allows security analysts to direct AI agents ready to resolve attacks, helping to automate time-consuming tasks and manage critical workflows. The ultimate goal is to reverse the temporal advantage, tilting it in favor of corporate security teams. The expected result is AI-powered protection that keeps security managers one step ahead of AI-based threats, ensuring that time, the most valuable currency, works in favor of defenses.
