It’s impossible to ignore the relentless buzz around artificial intelligence (AI)—and for good reason. In business, AI is wielding transformative power at an unprecedented pace, promising to revolutionize workflows, decision-making, and customer experiences. But alongside record-breaking innovation, a darker tide is rising: cybercriminals are deploying AI to escalate threats to levels never seen before.
A recent MIT Sloan analysis highlights a dramatic and worrying statistic: a staggering 80% of current ransomware attacks now leverage AI to automate, personalize, and amplify their destructive reach. Attackers use AI to craft highly convincing phishing emails, identify vulnerabilities with astonishing precision, and even create malware that can adapt itself to evade detection. The robots do it better, and the results are chilling. In 2024 alone, the average ransomware payment skyrocketed from $400,000 in 2023 to $2 million—a jaw-dropping 500% increase. Ransomware claims have similarly surged, heightening corporate anxiety and risk exposure.
The Enterprise Challenge: AI as Both Sword and Shield
While AI is being weaponized by bad actors, it remains a pivotal opportunity for forward-thinking enterprises. Analysts across the board agree that an overwhelming majority of business leaders see AI as their top investment priority. They recognize that, if implemented wisely, AI can automate countless workflows, empower staff, speed time to market, and radically improve productivity.
But success comes at a price. The very data that fuels AI’s leap forward is now a prized target for hackers. As AI becomes increasingly mission-critical, resilient data storage, network security, and always-on access to data are not “nice to haves”—they’re foundational. In other words: AI’s business value is inseparable from the integrity and continuity of the infrastructure, systems, and data that support it and are tapped by the models in use.
Resilient AI: The Smart Organization’s Advantage
So, how do enterprises navigate this paradox—embracing AI innovation while mitigating the new breed of ransomware threats it enables?
Expedient’s approach is clear: build a resilient AI-powered enterprise on a bedrock of robust AI technologies, IT security, and uncompromising data protection. This means deploying best-in-class technologies for immutable backups, multi-region disaster recovery, and real-time monitoring—all while making security features like two-factor authentication, role-based access control, and encryption standard practice.
Proactive steps like these are critical for defending against AI-enhanced ransomware, ensuring that if the worst happens, businesses have a clear path back to normal operations—without devastating losses.
We are so convinced in this mission that we are offering up attractive bundling offers (combining AI, DR, and data management platforms) to make the vision of an AI-powered enterprise a reality for companies of all sizes, across industries.
Make Resilience Your Competitive Edge
The message is clear: AI is changing the cyber threat landscape as quickly as it is reshaping business for the better. With ransomware actors arming themselves with AI, organizations can’t afford to treat resilience as an afterthought.
Instead, by embedding resilience—through secure, readily recoverable data and “always-on” infrastructure—into the core of your AI journey, you turn a point of vulnerability into a lasting strategic advantage.
