Fowler said Darktrace was building its own framework and was thinking about some of the frameworks that it has seen from McKinsey on how generative AI is being used, and what stages and levels of maturity it can and should be used.

Engaging partners

For Komadina, being able to map frameworks out for customers is where partners can bring value.

“The value that partners bring is particularly the ones that have got that deep expertise, working with federal government, state government, and so on,” she said. “They can help customers with mapping to the frameworks like the SOCI Act, NIST framework, [and] ISO 27001.

“They’re able to consult to those customers and look at all those different vectors around visibility, controls, and ensuring that they’re also mapping to those frameworks.

“Security awareness training is a priority, known to our customers but also to our partners, and obviously enablement.”

Komadina said Darktrace has a “real laser focus at the moment on engaging” its existing and net new partners on enabling them in this particular space.

“We’ve invested a lot of time, particularly this year,” she explained. “Strategically, we’re very focused on what we can to ensure our partners are enabled, and then … ensure that we work together.”

While agentic AI is something that everybody can wrap their head around in terms of the impact and the unpredictability, Fowler believes falling back to “core cyber security principles” can ensure a measure of security with AI adoption.

“At the end of the day, it is a program that’s operating within your environment,” he said. “The more that you’re able to have visibility control and put up guardrails around that, that, the better you’re going to be able to defend and understand what it’s doing.

“We all know hope is never a good strategy, especially when it comes to security. I would go back on not to get lost in the … speed with which it’s being deployed.”

That includes boiling it down to cyber best principles, the cyber suite and the technology stack.

That’s why regardless of whether it’s consumers, customers or partners, it’s important to invest in educating staff.

“The market will continue to evolve, but there’ll be another revolution, there’ll be another transformation, there’ll be something else,” Komadina said. “But right now, we’re in the middle of something exciting.

“It’s really important to stop and think about, ‘What does this mean for the business and what can [be] controlled?’”