CISOs shift from gatekeepers to enablers, embedding security, resilience, and AI governance into business strategy for digital trust.
In a hyper-digitized enterprise landscape where technology evolves faster than governance models can catch up, cybersecurity is no longer the back-office function it once was. It has become the operating principle that underpins digital trust, business resilience, and brand integrity. The modern Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has transitioned from an enforcer of controls to a strategic partner enabling the enterprise to grow responsibly.
This shift, however, hasn’t been linear or frictionless. As organizations grapple with increasingly complex IT ecosystems, AI adoption, compliance pressures, and rising board expectations, CISOs are being asked to deliver more—with greater clarity, alignment, and accountability.
According to Gartner, nearly 60% of CISOs admit their security programs remain reactive, unable to keep pace with evolving enterprise demands. The challenge now is not just about responding to threats—but architecting security as a foundational layer of business transformation.
Security still in catch-up mode
Cybersecurity often finds itself reacting to the aftershocks of innovation rather than anticipating them.
“Cybersecurity has always been a catch-up game,” said Kishan Kendre, Global Head of Information Security. “When cloud technologies emerged, it took years to standardize the right security frameworks. Today, with AI, we’re seeing the same lag. There are countless AI platforms being deployed across enterprises—but very few secure AI-native environments.”
This growing disparity between technological advancement and security readiness is cause for serious concern. According to a CISO Forum study, by 2027, around 50% of organizations are projected to experience cyberattacks aimed specifically at AI-powered decision systems. As businesses quickly adopt AI in areas like customer service and analytics, security measures often lag behind or are missing altogether.
Amrish Kumar Singh, CISO at Godrej Industries, warns of the growing risks of this imbalance. “Digital transformation and cybersecurity are two sides of the same coin,” he said. “If you move too fast without aligning your cyber posture, the damage can be irreversible—legal setbacks, brand erosion, even operational paralysis.”
In this evolving landscape, the question is no longer whether cyber teams can keep up with innovation, but whether they can embed security deeply enough to prevent becoming its unintended casualty.
Cybersecurity as a business function, not an obstacle
In the modern enterprise, cybersecurity has moved from the server room to the boardroom. Yet despite growing awareness and budget allocations, many organizations continue to view cyber risk primarily as a technical problem—isolated from strategic decision-making. This siloed approach is no longer tenable.
“Security teams are often seen as blockers,” said Amrish Kumar Singh, CISO at Godrej Industries. “But when CISOs understand the business context and communicate risks in the language of outcomes—impact on operations, customers, compliance—they become enablers of transformation. That shift in perception is absolutely critical.”
The need for business-aligned security leadership is only intensifying. Gartner’s 2025 recommendation stresses that security leaders must “demonstrate business acumen” to influence enterprise strategy. This means being able to tie every risk, control, and investment to measurable business value—whether it’s maintaining uptime, protecting brand trust, or enabling compliance-driven market expansion.
Keyur Desai, Head – IT at Prince Pipes, offered a compelling analogy: “CISOs need to start thinking like CEOs. If you own the business narrative, it becomes easier to set the right security priorities and gain executive alignment.”
The transformation of cybersecurity into a core business function demands not just better tools but better communicators—CISOs who speak the language of growth, agility, and customer experience. In a world where digital risk can derail business momentum overnight, cybersecurity can no longer be a checkbox—it must be a business value multiplier.
Compliance beyond checklists: making security part of the DNA
India’s upcoming enforcement of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of enterprise data governance. As the Act pushes organizations to tighten controls over personal data collection, processing, and storage, regulatory compliance is becoming a top boardroom priority. However, seasoned CISOs warn that viewing compliance as a checklist-driven exercise could undermine its intent.
“Checklists are made for others. Real compliance needs to go into your DNA,” asserted Vikas Sharma, Head – IT and CISO at Aditya Birla Group.
“If your organization views compliance as a quarterly chore, you’ve already lost the bigger battle. It should be like brushing your teeth—part of your routine, not a response to an external trigger.”
This perspective calls for a cultural shift—from reactive to proactive, from periodic audits to continuous assurance. Organizations must move beyond document-driven reporting and embed compliance principles directly into business workflows, product development, and customer engagement strategies.
At the 2024 Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, analysts emphasized that embedding cybersecurity into day-to-day operations—from software development to third-party engagements—is far more effective than enforcing compliance through top-down mandates. As summarized by MixMode, Gartner advocates for integrating security into business workflows to enable agility and resilience, rather than treating it as an external governance overlay.
The DPDP Act is a regulatory push in the right direction, but its success will depend on how deeply organizations internalize its principles. True compliance is not about ticking boxes—it’s about building trust, by design.
Boardroom conversations: simpler, sharper, strategic
As cybersecurity cements its place on the boardroom agenda, CISOs are learning to tailor their messaging—not for technical peers, but for business leaders and directors. The language of cybersecurity is evolving from packets and endpoints to risk exposure, financial impact, and operational resilience.
“In a board meeting, you have 10 minutes,” said Keyur Desai, Head – IT at Prince Pipes.
“You don’t get into jargon or endpoint telemetry. You talk about risk exposure, how it’ll be mitigated, and what it’ll cost. The board wants clarity: What are the top risks? How do we respond? How prepared are we?”
This shift requires a more strategic, data-informed approach to communication. Frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), FAIR (Factor Analysis of Information Risk), and Value-at-Risk (VaR) models have become instrumental in helping security leaders quantify threats in business terms. These frameworks allow organizations to assign dollar values to cyber risk—facilitating more transparent decision-making and budget alignment.
Boards are no longer content with vague threat levels or red/yellow/green dashboards. They expect concrete answers on potential losses, likelihoods, and return on investment for security initiatives. This expectation is being reinforced by regulators as well.
According to Gartner, by 2027, more than 50% of large enterprises will adopt formal cyber risk quantification frameworks, up from just 10% in 2022. This trend highlights a new era in cyber governance—one where risk visibility and strategic clarity are as important as technical controls.
Cybersecurity, once an IT concern, is now a shared executive priority.
Budgets are bigger — but scrutiny is sharper
In the post-pandemic digital economy, cybersecurity budgets have grown significantly. Remote work, accelerated cloud adoption, and rising cyber threats have pushed boards to invest more in cyber defense. But along with this financial support comes heightened scrutiny. Today, security investments are expected to deliver tangible business outcomes—not just visibility dashboards or compliance checkmarks.
“Earlier, cybersecurity was viewed as a support function,” said Kishan Kendre, Global Head of Information Security. “Today, it’s a core enabler. Ironically, ransomware has been the best teacher—it put cybersecurity into the top five enterprise risks.”
Executives are now asking tougher questions: What’s the return on security investment (ROSI)? Are we better protected today than last quarter? Can this spend reduce breach recovery time, or enhance customer trust and brand resilience?
Anthony Basera, India Director – Enterprise Sales & Risk at Rubrik, emphasizes that this shift demands a new kind of narrative from security leaders. “Security tooling is one part of the puzzle. But CISOs need support in presenting these tools in terms of business value. The board doesn’t care how many endpoints you’ve patched—they care about risk mitigation and business continuity.”
This evolution calls for better cost-justification models, metrics that reflect business risk, and clearer alignment between cybersecurity spend and strategic priorities. According to Gartner, 75% of cybersecurity programs will be routinely assessed by their ability to deliver measurable value to the enterprise by 2026. The age of blind spending is over—every rupee must now earn its place in the resilience roadmap.
AI disruption: innovation meets uncertainty
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the cybersecurity landscape, but with it comes a paradox: the very tool that promises faster threat detection and response may also become one of the most complex risks to manage. AI-driven tools are revolutionizing how enterprises detect anomalies, automate incident response, and optimize threat intelligence. However, the speed of AI adoption is also exposing new vulnerabilities—especially when governance can’t keep pace.
“AI adoption is happening faster than we anticipated,” noted Amrish Kumar Singh, CISO at Godrej Industries.
“Employees are already using tools that IT doesn’t know about—this is the rise of ‘shadow AI.’ We need to be proactive about governance before misuse becomes mainstream.”
This hidden usage of AI tools outside formal IT oversight mirrors the earlier surge in shadow IT, but the stakes are arguably higher due to AI’s potential to process and leak sensitive data, make autonomous decisions, or amplify bias. Compounding this is a widespread misunderstanding of what AI really is.
“We asked a team for their AI use cases,” Singh added. “Out of five, only one was genuinely AI. The rest were glorified Excel formulas.”
Gartner forecasts that by 2026, over 50% of cybersecurity incidents will be attributed to poor management of AI systems—making talent and governance just as critical as the technology itself. As organizations embrace AI-driven innovation, they must pair it with robust risk frameworks, clear usage policies, and upskilling programs to ensure AI becomes a force for resilience, not disruption.
Recent findings from Capgemini reinforce this duality. In 2024, 90% of organizations reported a cybersecurity breach, a significant jump from just 51% in 2021. Nearly half estimate financial losses exceeding $50 million in the last three years alone. What’s more alarming is that 97% of enterprises faced security incidents involving Generative AI—ranging from malware generation and phishing to insider misuse and prompt injection vulnerabilities.
The report warns that Gen AI introduces a broader attack surface, demanding security across the entire lifecycle—from enterprise data ingestion and model customization to deployment and ongoing usage. Yet, three in five security leaders believe AI is essential for effective threat detection and response, and over 60% are optimistic about its long-term contribution to cyber defense.
As organizations increasingly experiment with Gen AI for threat intelligence and automation, the message is clear: AI must be governed as rigorously as it is adopted. Without this balance, enterprises risk turning a defensive advantage into a blind spot.
The talent gap: A strategic vulnerability
As cyber threats grow more sophisticated and AI compounds the complexity of enterprise security environments, the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals has emerged as one of the most critical vulnerabilities facing organizations today. The challenge is no longer just about hiring more people—it’s about cultivating the right capabilities: strategic alignment, technical depth, and business fluency.
“There’s no straight answer,” said Urvish Acharya, Head – IT Governance, Risk, and CSO at Birla Carbon. “CXOs understand the risk now. They’re ready to invest in people, but the talent must also be aligned with frameworks, outcomes, and communication skills.”
Acharya shared a candid moment of reckoning: “My CEO once asked me, ‘If we’re attacked today, how secure are we?’ I didn’t have a ready answer. That moment made us double down on NIST, measure across all six pillars, and build executive confidence.”
This exchange underlines a core issue—cybersecurity teams must not only defend systems but also communicate assurance. A technically sound team that cannot translate risk in business terms risks being overlooked in key decisions.
The growing prevalence of AI only deepens the urgency. As Gartner warns, without qualified professionals to guide implementation, AI can create blind spots rather than visibility. This means future-ready security talent must be fluent in AI governance, risk quantification, and incident response playbooks.
Organizations must invest in structured learning, cross-functional exposure, and ongoing simulations. Cybersecurity can no longer be a siloed technical function. It requires multidisciplinary teams that can think tactically, act operationally, and communicate strategically.
The war for talent is no longer about roles—it’s about readiness.
From reactive to resilient: the new CISO playbook
So what does the journey from “chaos to control” look like for India Inc.? For today’s CISOs, it’s not about being gatekeepers of IT or responders to the latest breach—it’s about leading the organization through complexity with foresight, adaptability, and strategic clarity. The modern CISO is not just a technical defender, but a navigator of digital risk and an enabler of innovation.
This transformation demands a new playbook—one grounded in proactive resilience rather than reactive control. First, compliance must become embedded in business DNA, not relegated to quarterly checklists. As Vikas Sharma of Aditya Birla Group pointed out, true governance is habitual—“like brushing your teeth”—not a tick-box exercise.
Second, risk must be quantified in business terms. Frameworks like NIST, FAIR, and Value-at-Risk are helping CISOs articulate cyber exposure in language the board understands—impact, cost, and likelihood—making security funding easier to justify and align with business goals.
Third, talent transformation is critical. As Urvish Acharya emphasized, it’s not just about hiring more hands but cultivating professionals who understand frameworks, think in outcomes, and communicate with clarity.
Fourth, AI governance must move ahead of usage. The rise of shadow AI is real, and without clear guidelines, enterprises may find themselves innovating into blind spots.
Fifth, resilience must be continuously tested. Anthony Basera, India Director at Rubrik, summed it up best: “Your greatest strength isn’t the number of tools deployed—it’s how often you test your resilience plan.”
Lastly, CISOs must build partnerships, not just controls. Those who speak the language of business, align with digital transformation goals, and manage perceptions effectively will be seen as enablers—not blockers.
Cybersecurity today is more than a safeguard—it’s a strategic function that underpins trust, accelerates innovation, and protects brand equity. In an AI-driven world, resilience is not just a capability—it’s a competitive advantage. And trust? That remains the most valuable currency of all.
