By Ania Kowalczuk, VP of Customer Trust, MongoDB

Malicious actors are becoming more sophisticated by the day, and AI is only enhancing their capabilities. For businesses, matching sophisticated malicious activity means adopting advanced security measures. In 2025 businesses should-and will-increasingly turn to AI to proactively detect and address emerging cyber threats, secure complex systems, and manage risk.

Threat Actor Sophistication with Artificial Intelligence

AI has already changed the cybersecurity landscape quite significantly. In the next year, we'll see the technology not only ramp up the defenses of businesses, but also the sophistication of attacks that said businesses look to counter. Attackers will tap into AI to orchestrate eerily realistic social engineering attacks, like phishing and impersonation, that are harder to detect. Deepfakes and advanced language models will also enable highly tailored, real-time attacks that mimic individuals or brands with unsettling accuracy. Deepfake technology, specifically, will become a critical vector for social engineering attacks that can bypass traditional detection methods. This trend will likely push organizations to adopt multi-factor authentication processes that go beyond passwords and fingerprints, like behavioral analysis or contextual cues, to confirm user identity accurately.

Building AI-powered Resilience Frameworks

Keeping in mind threat actor sophistication, businesses will need to focus on building resilience in 2025 by integrating predictive AI that can assess both the technical and human aspects of emerging threats. This will help organizations adapt dynamically to this new landscape.

With that, we will see a shift towards  AI-powered resilience frameworks in the new year, especially in response to supply chain vulnerabilities and deepfake-driven social engineering attacks. As more organizations move to multi-cloud environments and third-party integrations increase, managing these extended supply chains securely will be crucial. AI  will likely play a key role here-not just in detecting threats, but also in making real-time adjustments to counteract attacks and secure data flows across multiple layers.

Proactive AI strategies will use adaptive risk scoring and self-healing systems to stay a step ahead and build resilience in an increasingly complex threat landscape.

AI as a Proactive Shield versus Reactive Tool

Enterprise defense tactics will strengthen in 2025 as AI-driven systems proactively spot more patterns and anomalies in real-time across entire data environments. For example, AI will monitor supply chains for strange activity and automatically correct misconfigurations or address minor security gaps before an  attacker even has the opportunity to exploit them.

AI will also reshape identity management by supporting an extra layer of security by way of behavioral analytics and will be able to help monitor for insider threats by spotting unusual behavior patterns, like off-hours logins or workflow deviations. This proactive approach will lead to more real-time alerts on potentially risky activity within the system, giving teams a head start on catching threats from within.

Automated threat detection will become increasingly essential. Security as Code will likely become a standard, and a focus on embedding security policies into development workflows will help to ensure consistent application from the start.

Secure Multi-cloud Transparency

As more organizations adopt multi-cloud and hybrid environments, the most critical advancements in cloud security next year will focus on visibility, access control, and automated protection across platforms. A key priority will be unified tools that let teams see and manage security across multiple clouds from one  place, which is essential for spotting issues quickly in complex setups.

Zero-trust security will also adapt to multi-cloud environments. This approach verifies user identity at each step and restricts access based on roles, ensuring detailed control over who can access what. With multiple cloud platforms in play, this helps prevent unauthorized access even if systems are interconnected.

The Year of Proactive, AI-driven Cybersecurity

2025 will bring a significant shift in cybersecurity proactivity, backed by AI implementation. Increased multi-cloud adoption and third-party integrations will transform how businesses think about risk management. With the use of AI, businesses will be more equipped than ever before to proactively identify and address cyber activity in an increasingly complex digital world.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ania Kowalczuk, VP, Customer Trust, MongoDB

Ania Kowalczuk is the Vice President of Customer Trust at MongoDB, where she leads initiatives to understand and address the security needs of customers while building programs that promote transparency and collaboration. Her focus is on making security management straightforward for all users, while ensuring that MongoDB’s products meet the highest standards of security and compliance.

With a Master’s in Cybersecurity Risk and Strategy from NYU, Ania combines her technical expertise with her unique ability to engage audiences. She has spoken at panels and regularly participates in thought leadership events, including major industry conferences. Her background in stand-up comedy and public speaking helps her simplify complex cybersecurity concepts and connect with diverse audiences.

Ania’s passion for promoting security best practices and collaboration has positioned her as a trusted voice in the tech industry, helping to bridge the gap between technical expertise and user-friendly solutions.