AI agents go mainstream in Middle East, but security gaps persist: Cisco

As enterprises move beyond experimentation toward AI agents capable of autonomous action, Cisco is urging organisations across the Middle East to strengthen security across both AI agents and the broader AI supply chain.

Across the region, organisations are increasingly exploring AI agents for use cases spanning government services, financial services, energy and large enterprise operations.

However, Cisco cautions that this rapid adoption is expanding the AI risk surface and introducing new security challenges.

AI agents in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Cisco’s AI Readiness Index 2025 highlights the scale of this momentum. According to the report, 92 per cent of organisations in the UAE and 91 per cent in Saudi Arabia already intend to develop or deploy AI agents across a wide range of use cases.

At the same time, organisations continue to face practical constraints, including infrastructure limitations, workforce planning gaps and security concerns.

Fady Younes, Managing Director for Cybersecurity at Cisco Middle East, Türkiye, Africa and Romania, said: “As AI agents move from experimentation to real-world deployment across the Middle East, organizations are facing new security considerations.

“From the third-party components used to build AI systems, to how autonomous agents interact with data and tools, securing the full AI lifecycle is becoming increasingly important for maintaining digital trust and resilience.”

Cisco highlighted that modern AI development relies heavily on third-party and open-source components, including models and datasets.

While these assets accelerate innovation, they also introduce risk, as a compromised component can undermine an entire AI system and enable outcomes such as code execution and sensitive data exfiltration.

AI in business

To address this, Cisco introduced AI Defence as a security solution for the development and deployment of enterprise AI applications.

As the AI risk surface expands, the platform has evolved to include AI supply chain scanning, enabling organisations to scan model files and MCP servers in enterprise repositories to identify and flag vulnerabilities before deployment.

This capability is particularly relevant for Middle East organisations operating in regulated sectors such as government, financial services and critical infrastructure.

Cisco AI applications

Cisco noted that production AI applications are vulnerable to a range of malicious and unintentional threats, including prompt injections, data leakage, toxicity and denial-of-service scenarios.

When Cisco AI Defense was launched, its runtime protection guardrails were designed to address these risks through bi-directional inspection and filtering, preventing harmful content from both user prompts and model responses.

Cisco said it continues to invest in AI security research and collaboration to help organisations manage emerging risks.

By combining AI security expertise with networking capabilities, Cisco AI Defense aims to support enterprises across the Middle East as they advance national AI strategies and broader digital transformation agendas.