Palo Alto Networks CEO dismisses AI as cybersecurity threat amid market jitters

Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora aims to reassure investors by emphasising AI’s role in strengthening cybersecurity defenses, despite recent sharp declines in software valuations driven by market uncertainty and AI advancements.

Palo Alto Networks chief executive Nikesh Arora moved to allay investor concerns this week, arguing that artificial intelligence is not poised to make cybersecurity obsolete and that organisations instead are leaning on AI to tighten and speed up their defences. “I’m still confused why the market is treating AI as a threat to at least cybersecurity,” Arora said on the company’s earnings call, adding “I can’t speak for all of software, but one thing we’re definitely seeing is that customers have figured out that they need to drive more consistency in their security stack to be able to respond faster using AI.”

The comments came amid a sharp retreat in software valuations that has hit cybersecurity providers as well as broader enterprise vendors. Market jitters followed Palo Alto’s quarterly results, where revenue beat expectations but upcoming guidance disappointed analysts, a combination that traders punished despite the company’s underlying sales strength.

Investors’ unease reflects wider disruption from new generative and agentic AI tools that can spin up enterprise workflows and applications rapidly, prompting questions about which software categories may be unbundled or commoditised. Industry observers say those capabilities are reshaping customer priorities and purchase cycles, forcing vendors to clarify how their products will remain essential as AI changes how workloads are created and secured.

Arora has previously warned about the specific risks posed by autonomous, agentic AI and has advocated defensive measures to protect critical systems from more capable adversaries. At the same time he has spoken favourably about generative models’ ability to boost efficiency inside security operations, arguing that AI becomes an amplifier for better detection and response when paired with coherent, modern security architectures.

Palo Alto has sought to translate that strategy into corporate moves, expanding its AI-security footprint through targeted deals. Last year the company acquired Protect AI to strengthen protections for machine-learning systems and later announced a major acquisition aimed at bolstering identity security, moves the company frames as essential to counter both conventional cyberthreats and newer, AI-enabled attacks.

For customers and vendors alike, the evolving picture is one of convergence: firms must integrate AI into their security stacks while vendors must prove that their platforms add value in an AI-first world. Analysts say the companies that can demonstrate faster, more consistent threat detection and response, rather than treating AI as a disruptor to be feared, will be best positioned as the technology becomes more deeply embedded across enterprise environments.

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Source: Fuse Wire Services