44,000 Attendees, 650 Exhibitors, 750 Speakers, 16,000 steps a day.
By Brad Pierce, CISSP, CISA, CDPSE, PCIP, Structured VP of Security Solutions —
AI was everywhere at the RSA Conference 2025, with significant developments across the cybersecurity landscape. Here’s a synopsis of the trends that really stood out at this year’s event.
AI Integration: From Assistance to Autonomy
The industry is transitioning from AI as a supportive tool to autonomous systems capable of independent action. Vendors demonstrated platforms where AI can perform tasks traditionally handled by security analysts, helping address talent shortages.
A significant evolution within the broader AI narrative was the pronounced focus on “Agentic AI,” a term that rapidly ascended to buzzword status and represented a key emerging trend. This marked a conceptual shift from traditional AI copilots, which assist human operators, to more autonomous AI systems designed to independently execute complex, multi-step tasks, promising to revolutionize threat detection and response capabilities. Agentic AI systems can now execute all phases of the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) with minimal human intervention.
AI Security
The rise of Agentic AI is poised to be a forcing function for a fundamental evolution of the Security Operations Center (SOC). As AI agents become capable of autonomously handling a significant portion of routine tasks, such as Tier 1 and Tier 2 alert triage and initial response, the role of human analysts will necessarily transform. This shift will move away from direct task execution towards a more strategic function focused on managing and overseeing these AI agents, validating their complex decisions, handling nuanced escalations that require human judgment, and dedicating more time to proactive threat hunting and the critical governance of AI systems.
Notable implementations include Abnormal AI’s autonomous security agents, Cisco’s Foundation AI initiative, CrowdStrike’s enhanced Charlotte AI capabilities, Securonix’s GenAI agents for Security Operations Centers, SentinelOne’s Purple AI Athena, and Vectra AI Analyst.
AI Governance and Securing AI
The rapid proliferation and integration of AI tools across the cybersecurity landscape brought critical discussions surrounding AI governance to the forefront. Managing the risks associated with unmanaged or “shadow AI” deployments within organizations emerged as a key concern. Ensuring the safety, security, predictable behavior, and robust vulnerability management of AI models themselves became a central theme.
New Paradigm, Who Dis? – Securing Human and Non-Human Identities
Identity security was unequivocally positioned as a “new battleground” and, one attendee making a nod to recurring industry cycles, saying it is “the new perimeter (again).” This emphasis is substantiated by the stark statistic that identity-based attacks are implicated in approximately 80% of breaches, underscoring the critical need for robust identity-centric defenses.
Identity governance and lifecycle management were in focus from Sailpoint, to Okta, to Netwrix, to Active Directory. A significant dimension of this renewed focus was the expansion beyond traditional human user identities to address the burgeoning challenge of securing non-human identities (NHIs). These include machine identities such as bots, APIs, service accounts, and IoT devices, which are proliferating rapidly, particularly within complex cloud and hybrid environments. As companies grow and identities sprawl there is increasing investment in securing this often-overlooked aspect of cybersecurity.
As always, humans are bad with passwords, and legitimate credentials are hard to defend against. Password management and passwordless solutions were on prominent display as well.
The Move Toward “Platformization”
A compelling trend evident throughout RSAC 2025 was the strong industry movement towards “platformization” — the consolidation of disparate security tools and capabilities into integrated, cohesive platforms. This shift is primarily driven by the pressing need for organizations to reduce the complexity inherent in managing a multitude of point solutions, streamline their security operations, and enhance overall scalability and efficiency. The sentiment is that the cybersecurity tool sprawl has become counterproductive, leading to alert fatigue, integration challenges, and operational overhead.
Large established cybersecurity vendors such as Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike are increasingly positioning themselves as providers of end-to-end security ecosystems rather than sellers of individual point products. This strategy aims to offer customers a more holistic and integrated approach to security, promising better visibility, coordinated response, and simplified management.
This, of course, should be weighed against the consideration that customers who invest heavily in a single vendor’s platform may face increased vendor lock-in. This can make it more difficult and costly to integrate best-of-breed solutions from outside the primary platform’s ecosystem, potentially limiting flexibility and choice over time.
Caveats aside, either approach can make good sense based on your organization’s specific needs, technical skills, human and capital resources, and long-term plans.
Keeping An Eye Out – Attack Surface Management
RSAC 2025 also saw developments and emphasis on proactive defense through Asset Management and Attack Surface Management (ASM). These approaches are critical for organizations to understand their vulnerabilities and overall risk posture before they can be exploited.
ASM focuses on identifying all potential entry points into an organization’s systems. This includes visible internet-facing assets but also extends to hidden or forgotten infrastructure. By continuously monitoring these potential attack vectors, security teams can work to reduce opportunities for threat actors to gain access.
Recommended Actions for Security Teams
AI Strategy: Focus on specific applications that deliver measurable benefits rather than following hype. Prepare governance structures for autonomous decision-making.
Identity Security: Make identity central to security strategy with investments in IAM, PAM, NHIM, and password management.
Modernization: Phase out legacy systems that impede security effectiveness and operational agility.
Privacy Integration: Foster collaboration between security and privacy teams with investments in data discovery and governance.
Resilience Culture: Shift focus from pure prevention to effective detection, response, and recovery. Address cybersecurity burnout with supportive programs.
Future Developments
Looking ahead, several trends will likely accelerate:
- Deeper integration of agentic AI toward self-healing security systems
- Increased focus on securing AI models and countering AI-generated threats
- Maturation of non-human identity management
Recommendations for Future Readiness
- Conduct AI-readiness assessments
- Map the complete identity landscape
- Evaluate and refine modernization roadmaps
- Strengthen data governance practices
- Invest in human capital through continuous training and burnout prevention
Final Thoughts from RSAC 2025
Looking forward, organizations must prioritize adaptability, foster a culture of continuous learning, and make strategic investments in both advanced technology and the development of their human talent to effectively navigate the evolving threat landscape.
The focus will likely continue to shift further towards proactive and predictive security postures, fueled by AI-driven analytics and comprehensive threat intelligence. However, these advanced capabilities must be built upon a solid foundation of identity management and resilient system architectures.
Interested in AI-readiness services or even just chatting with an expert about the trends at RSAC this year and how they might impact your organization? Contact your Structured account manager or email info@structured.com to learn more about our services and how we can partner with you to stay ahead of the ever-changing cybersecurity and AI landscape.
About the Author
As the Vice President of Security Solutions, Brad Pierce leads an elite team of security and compliance professionals and ensures the Structured team is prepared to combat modern malware and advanced threats wherever they are found. “Understanding how systems are built and how they can fail is a type of thinking that is hardwired in me and constantly drives me to learn more,” he said.
With more than three decades of cybersecurity experience, Brad’s background includes security and network infrastructure design, implementation, troubleshooting, information security assessments and compliance auditing.
Brad has designed and implemented connectivity, access and security solutions for companies of all sizes; performed security assessments and penetration testing; provided emergency troubleshooting services and support for companies experiencing computer-related problems ranging from simple routing or server problems to large-scale multi-continent network outages and system redesigns.
Brad holds several challenging industry certifications including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP #319991), the ISACA Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE), the PCI Security Standards Council PCI Professional (PCI PCIP), and the SANS Certified Penetration Tester (GIAC GPEN), as well as numerous certifications from technology manufacturers like Palo Alto Networks, Cisco and Juniper.