Tines, in partnership with AWS, announced the publication of the IDC
White Paper, Voice of Security 2025: Security Leaders' Perspectives on AI
Adoption, Team Performance, and Job Satisfaction, which examines job
satisfaction and outputs among security teams, how automation and AI are
improving the lives of security leaders and the hurdles they encounter with
current tooling.
The IDC White Paper, Voice of Security 2025 surveyed over
900 security decision makers across the United States, Europe and Australia,
finding 60% of security teams are small, with fewer than 10 members. Despite
their size, 72% report taking on more work over the past year, and an
impressive 88% are meeting or exceeding their goals.
According to the research, security leaders are bullish on AI -
98% are embracing it and a mere 5% believe AI will replace their job outright.
The data also highlights security leaders' perspectives on the value of
leveraging AI and automation to eliminate business siloes, with nearly all
leaders seeing the potential to connect these tools across security, IT (98%),
and DevOps (97%) functions. However, this enthusiasm coexists with notable
concerns and frustrations: 33% of respondents are worried about the time
required to train their teams on AI capabilities, while 27% cite compliance as
a key blocker. Other hurdles include AI hallucinations (26%), secure AI
adoption (25%), and slower-than-expected implementation (20%).
"Challenges in the cybersecurity industry are ever present and
ever changing" said Matt Muller, field CISO, Tines. "Security professionals,
who already face an unprecedented threat landscape in 2025, are met with the
daunting task to integrate AI across their workflows. Our research shows
that security teams are stepping up. However, organizations must take a
flexible approach to automation and AI to ensure it remains secure and
effective."
Tech stacks are adequate, but functionality gaps persist
One-third of respondents are satisfied with their team's tools,
but many see potential for improvement. Most security teams (55%) typically
manage 20 to 49 tools, while 23% use fewer than 20, and 22% use 50 to 99. Regardless
of the number of tools, 24% of respondents struggle with poor integration,
while 35% feel their stack lacks key functionality. The challenge lies not just
in having the right tools, but in ensuring they work in harmony to reduce
complexity and boost performance.
"Siloed automation across departments complicates managing
security programs and creates vulnerabilities, especially as less technical
employees adopt these technologies," said Christopher Kissel, research
vice president, Security & Trust Products, IDC Research. "The security
leaders we surveyed are strongly in favor of embracing shared automation between
security and closely-knit business units like IT and DevOps to improve
collaboration, strengthen security posture, streamline operations, and reduce
complexity."
Other key findings from the IDC White Paper, Voice of Security
2025 include:
- If security
leaders gained time through automation or AI, 43% would use it to focus
more on security policy development, 42% on training and development, and
38% on incident response planning
- Most (83%) of
security leaders report having a healthy work-life balance, but only 72%
can perform their jobs without working extended hours, suggesting that
such sacrifices have become an accepted part of the role for many