Moody’s forecasts growing AI threats, regulatory friction for 2026

Moody’s cyber outlook report — part of a series of 2026 forecasts that business leaders are tracking closely — predicts that AI-related threats such as model poisoning will “become more prevalent and pronounced” as more companies adopt the technology without proper safeguards.

AI has already made it easier for attackers to personalize their attacks through phishing emails and deepfake media, Moody’s noted, but 2026 is likely to bring “adaptive malware” that is hard for defenders to spot, as well as AI agents that help hackers launch attacks more quickly. The research firm even predicted that the coming year would bring “early indications of autonomous attacks,” something that experts have grown increasingly worried about amid companies’ recent disclosures.

On the defense side, while Moody’s said companies that didn’t invest in “AI-driven defenses” would be “increasingly vulnerable,” the firm also predicted that agentic AI’s autonomous capabilities created the “potential for unpredictable behavior and error accumulation” that could complicate companies’ cyber incident response activities.

Read more at Cybersecurity Dive