Artificial intelligence is transforming the cybersecurity landscape at unprecedented speed. On the offensive side, attackers are leveraging AI to scale phishing campaigns, craft highly personalized social engineering messages, generate stealthy malware, and even automate reconnaissance at a pace no human team could match. This means threats arrive faster, evolve more dynamically, and can bypass traditional defenses with increasing ease.
On the defensive side, AI is also fueling powerful new capabilities. For MSPs and MSSPs, AI brings the ability to correlate massive volumes of telemetry, detect anomalies in real time, and reduce analyst fatigue by automating triage and response workflows.
The technology can help service providers offer clients more proactive risk management — but only if it’s deployed responsibly, with clear governance and visibility into how AI engines interact with sensitive data.
Against this backdrop, regulatory and investor scrutiny is intensifying. Financial services firms in particular face mounting pressure to adopt AI securely while satisfying compliance expectations. That tension — between innovation and oversight — set the stage for Cavelo’s recent panel discussion, which brought together industry leaders, partners, and customers to explore what AI readiness really looks like in practice.
The conversation, moderated by Cavelo’s Channel Chief, Larry Meador, featured perspectives from myself, alongside:
- Eldon Sprickerhoff – Strategic Advisor and Growth Architect, Caledon Ventures; co-founder of eSentire
- Chris Turek – Former CIO, Evercore
- Vinod Paul – President of Managed Services, Align
The State of AI Readiness: “It’s Still the Wild West”
Despite excitement around AI, most firms remain unprepared for SEC scrutiny. Panelists described a “Wild West” environment where employees experiment with tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot — often feeding in sensitive or confidential data without oversight. While policies may exist, enforcement and visibility lag behind actual usage.
The challenge isn’t just internal. Vendors and partners are adopting AI at speed, introducing additional risk that firms must account for. From my perspective, you’re never going to get away from AI. It’s another risk vector, and organizations must incorporate it into best practice, not treat it as an exception.
Regulators and Investors: Two Pressures, Different Paces
A central theme was that regulators themselves aren’t ready for the implications of AI adoption.
The SEC is still evolving its approach to AI oversight, and compliance expectations are likely to shift rapidly. In contrast, investors are already asking sharper questions. During operational due diligence reviews, firms are increasingly required to produce AI usage policies and demonstrate enforcement.
For MSPs and MSSPs supporting financial firms, this means that investor scrutiny may outpace regulatory scrutiny, creating pressure for proactive controls and strong reporting.
Blind Spots: Data and People
When asked about blind spots, the panelists unanimously pointed to two:
- Data readiness: AI’s effectiveness depends on how well an organization’s data is governed, classified, and secured. Poorly structured data or overly permissive access models create exposure when AI engines ingest sensitive content.
- Human behavior: From interns to executives, employees are the weakest link. Without clear AI policies and training, people will default to risky behaviors — such as dropping confidential data into ChatGPT without realizing the consequences.
This is where data security posture management (DSPM) becomes critical: organizations must first understand where sensitive data lives, who has access to it, and how it flows across systems before layering AI tools on top.
Building Proactive Controls and Governance
Vinod Paul emphasized that effective governance requires a balance:
If you don’t give people an outlet to use AI, they’ll find one anyway.” Firms should establish measured AI governance programs that involve compliance, IT, legal, HR, and business units — not to block AI, but to enable safe adoption.
Continuous education, configuration management, and pragmatic guardrails were recurring themes. AI usage isn’t a one-time project — it’s a journey that requires ongoing monitoring and adjustment.
Cavelo’s Role: Turning Visibility into Confidence
At Cavelo, we help firms shift from reactive to proactive by providing complete visibility into risk. For example:
- AI Readiness Reports highlight what data an AI engine (like Copilot) will have access to, based on current permissions and configurations.
- Risk Scoring gives CISOs and IT leaders a clear, numeric view of their exposure, breaking down where sensitive data resides, who has access, and how misconfigurations increase risk.
- Best Practice Configurations ensure AI features are deployed with the right guardrails in place, reducing the chance of “shadow AI” or accidental exposure.
This visibility enables MSPs and MSSPs to advise clients with confidence and implement scalable governance strategies across their customer base.
Looking Ahead: A Balanced View of AI’s Future
While the panel acknowledged the growing risks — from nation-state actors to AI-powered phishing campaigns — they also struck an optimistic tone. Just as past disruptions like the dot-com era created new challenges and opportunities, AI has the potential to make businesses smarter, safer, and more efficient.
The key, as several panelists noted, is to treat AI as a risk to be managed, not a threat to be avoided.
Firms that can operationalize AI responsibly will not only meet regulatory and investor expectations but also gain a competitive edge in efficiency and resilience.
Cavelo is proud to partner with MSPs, MSSPs, and financial firms navigating this new frontier.
The path forward requires full visibility, strong governance, and pragmatic adoption of AI tools, which is exactly where Cavelo’s platform helps organizations bridge the gap.
