A Grant Thornton survey finds that 69% of CFOs plan to increase cybersecurity budgets as AI adoption grows, with the market projected to hit $338B by 2033.
A recent Grant Thornton survey found that the rapid adoption of generative AI in recent years has made CFOs determined to commit substantial investments in cybersecurity upgrades.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents expected cybersecurity expenses to increase over the next 12 months — a 16-quarter high and an increase of 16 percentage points over the third quarter.
“Cybersecurity around AI is very new,” Derek Han, a cybersecurity and privacy principal in Grant Thornton’s Risk Advisory group, said in a report on the findings. “People are investing in this area because they want to make sure they control those risks.”
Bloomberg Intelligence analysts found that the total cybersecurity market could reach $338 billion by 2033, up from about $152.5 billion in 2023.
They said the expansion of large language models—partly fueled by DeepSeek’s impact—could drive above-trend growth in cybersecurity segments like software monitoring, cloud workload security, and data-loss prevention.
Their analysis comes as DeepSeek’s rise has jolted the AI market, resulting in new opportunities and risks for enterprises.
The Chinese tech startup has attracted global attention after releasing an open-source AI model that it claims was built at a low cost compared with U.S. rivals like ChatGPT.
While open-source LLM models offer flexibility and cost savings, the Bloomberg Intelligence report said they can also have hidden vulnerabilities that require more spending on monitoring and data-security products.
Also Read: Cybersecurity Overhaul: Why Your Strategy Needs a GenAI Upgrade
According to analysts’ projections, the “software observability” segment of the cybersecurity market could be worth $53 billion by 2033, up from $19.2 billion in 2023.
Meanwhile, the need to authenticate AI agents — tools designed to take on workplace tasks — could accelerate growth in the identity management segment, driving its value to about $50.3 billion in 2033, up from $20 billion in 2023, they predicted.
