• Meet your new (autonomous) “coworkers”: why the rise of AI agents is both an opportunity for SecOps and a new, critical attack surface.
• Security is no longer a static exercise: learn why GRC needs to evolve into "GRC Engineering" and why your security role is shifting to an AI Security Orchestrator.
• Stop waiting for the fallout shelter: Discover the proactive steps, like Forrester's AEGIS framework, your CISO can take to design an AI-ready, resilient security organization.

Earlier this month, the 2025 Forrester Security & Risk Summit in Austin kicked off with a shark. Yes…a shark. 🎶 Cue the theme music from the movie Jaws. In Allie Mellen’s keynote The Security Singularity: Generative AI’s Moment to Transform Security, she said that everything in security will change because of AI over the next decade.

She described the “agentic future,” where AI agents use AI to interact with its environment, collect data, and make decisions based on predefined goals without constant human intervention. While this “system of agents” can be beneficial in areas like SecOps and services, it presents considerable risk as attackers will also leverage AI agents for reconnaissance, vulnerability identification—all the way to deploying payloads. She outlined Forrester's six steps for building a secure, AI-enabled organization, and then, she ended her session telling us it’s time to get in the water and embrace AI’s chaos and complexity of gray. 

🎶 Cue Baby Shark. Nooooo!

How can I get that ear worm of a song out of my head and not make it the theme of this blog? The answer is Yacht Rock. It’s water-related, right? It’s smooth, laid back, and full of legends! But can I find a yacht rock song that I can tie back to cybersecurity and AI?

🎶 Cue “New Frontier” by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan fame and an unintentional Yacht Rock founding father (he doesn’t think so). 😏

The song is smooth and bouncy with a hint of jazz, but if you watch the video (radio edit version) it depicts a young couple in the 60s going on a date in a fallout shelter, preparing for the new frontier with everything they need—just in case that button is pushed. Unfortunately, there’s no fallout shelter for AI. It’s been here, and we need to embrace it—hopefully we’ll have everything we need.

“The key word is survival on the new frontier”

Throughout the Forrester summit, there were sessions tied to the theme of surviving the new AI landscape. First off, we need to acknowledge that AI agents, while they provide much needed help for our exhausted SOC teams, also create a new target for attacks—so it’s important that we secure these autonomous “coworkers.” Then we have to prioritize governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) because AI is being adopted at a crazy pace. Zero trust architectures must adapt to include policy for everything, human or machine; and securing the software supply chain now is super important, especially as AI-generated code ramps up the risk. 

Ultimately, security roles need to shift to enable a proactive, flexible program that continuously manages risk and adapts to new business needs and threats. You’ll no longer be a SOC analyst—you’ll be an AI Security Orchestrator.

“She's got the right dynamic for the new frontier”

Donald Fagen sings about having the right dynamic for the new frontier, but in the AI world you have to be dynamic. With AI agents moving from passive tools to active, autonomous “coworkers” (or potential adversaries), your security needs to adapt in real-time as your perimeter expands to include these non-human identities. Or even predict their behavior, like our Incident Prediction feature that leverages AI to identify and disrupt LOTL attacks and other cyberthreats, before damage can occur. 

This constant evolution aligns with Forrester’s view that GRC needs to transform into “GRC Engineering”— an automated, scalable, and measurable system of continuous assurance, adaptation and risk management. Security is no longer a static, periodic exercise—it must be constant, proactive, and automated.

“We've got to have some music on the new frontier”

Of course, we need some music on the new frontier. AI is already topping the charts. Donald Fagen sings about his love of Dave Brubeck’s music, saying he’s an artist and a pioneer. And you have to be a pioneer for your organization’s AI frontier. Embrace your AI agent “coworkers” and let them be on the front lines of your defense. Be proactive and use offensive intelligence to sharpen your defenses and build resilience. Let your CISO be the artist and pioneer, leading the charge to design a resilient, AI-ready security organization using Forrester’s AEGIS (Agentic AI Guardrails For Information Security) framework.

“Prepare to meet the challenge of the new frontier” 

Let’s face it—there is no escaping AI. While attackers are weaponizing it, you can leverage it for real-time threat detection, alleviate manual processes, and even stop threats before they cause damage. The new AI frontier brings the promise of better and faster cyber defense along with never before seen attack vectors. As for what’s on the horizon for 2026, as Donald Fagen sings, “we'll open up the doors and climb into the dawn.” To get threat intel on AI’s role in the surge of opportunistic attacks, register to attend our webinar 2026 Biggest Cyber Threats.