IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026: AI Is Now the Attacker and the Target

Key takeaways AI-driven attacks rose 56% since last year’s Report, with shadow AI incidents more than doubling to 43%. The majority of AI-related breaches (92%) involved no proper AI access controls, making access and governance gaps the real driver of AI breach costs. Organizations that applied AI and automation extensively across their security lifecycle cut breach costs by $1.93 million.