Despite the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity, nearly half of Indian enterprises have not conducted any AI-related incident response exercises, according to a new survey by ISACA.
Only 21% of organisations in India said they regularly conduct AI-specific response exercises, while 49% have not conducted any such exercises. Another 20% said AI incident response is included in broader cyber incident exercises, while 13% plan to conduct AI-specific exercises in the future.
The findings are part of ISACA’s 2026 State of Cybersecurity survey, which collected responses from more than 1,800 cybersecurity professionals globally, including 147 from India.
The survey found 35% of Indian respondents either did not know whether their organisation had an AI incident response playbook or said it did not have one.
AI use rises in cybersecurity
The findings come as Indian cybersecurity teams increasingly use AI in their daily operations. Only 10% of respondents said they do not use AI in security operations.
The top uses include automating routine security tasks (53%), threat detection and response (52%) and endpoint security (40%).
At the same time, 34% of Indian respondents identified LLM SecOps as a cybersecurity skills gap, up 10 percentage points from 2025.
“AI adoption in India is moving at a fast pace and this research is a wake-up call for India’s cybersecurity teams that speed without readiness is a risk in itself,” said R V Raghu, ISACA ambassador and director at Versatilist Consulting India.
More than half (51%) of Indian cybersecurity professionals are now involved in developing, onboarding or implementing AI solutions, up from 46% in 2025. Another 52% said they or their teams were involved in developing policies governing AI use.
Staffing remains a challenge
The survey found that 57% of Indian cybersecurity professionals feel their work has become more stressful than five years ago. The increasingly complex threat landscape was cited as the main reason by 71%.
Staffing remains another concern, with 42% saying their cybersecurity teams are understaffed and 56% reporting open positions. Meanwhile, 66% said they face difficulties retaining skilled cybersecurity professionals.
