AI adoption driving cybersecurity burnout in India, report finds
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Cybersecurity burnout is on the rise in India, with 95% of organisations reporting issues in 2025 compared with 83% in 2024, according to a new report by Sophos and Tech Research Asia (now part of Omdia).
The study, based on a survey of 926 professionals across India and the APAC region, highlights growing stress levels among security teams due to threat overload, executive pressure, and resource shortages.
The report shows burnout severity is worsening.
In 2025, 47% of organisations said burnout is frequently experienced, up from 37% last year.
Aaron Bugal, field chief information security officer for APJ at Sophos, explained that rising threats, executive pressures, and alert fatigue are making cybersecurity unsustainable for many teams.
He noted that the latest findings confirm what has been seen in practice: stress and burnout in cybersecurity go beyond operations, touching on cultural, strategic, and human dimensions. While thoughtfully deployed AI tools can ease the burden by enhancing capabilities and speeding up incident response, the growing use of shadow AI — unauthorised and unregulated tools adopted by employees — creates new risks that many organisations are unprepared to handle.
AI is proving to be both a solution and a challenge.
While 97% of Indian organisations are already using AI tools such as ChatGPT, co-pilots, and agentic AI — with 92% having a formal AI strategy — the rise of shadow AI is complicating security.
About 62% of respondents admitted unauthorised AI use within their firms, while 31% were unsure. This lack of visibility into employee use of unapproved AI tools is raising new risks around data access and governance.
Despite these challenges, there are encouraging signs.
The report found that 87% of Indian organisations now provide counselling for employees dealing with stress and burnout, up from 74% in 2024. Bugal told NDTV that security awareness now needs to go beyond phishing emails, extending to how people handle and share sensitive data through AI tools. He stressed that proper governance and well-defined boundaries for AI usage are essential.
Burnout is also having a direct impact on business. It is leading to underperformance within IT and cybersecurity teams, slower incident response times, and growing detachment from security responsibilities.
Budgets are increasing in response. About 71% of Indian organisations plan to raise their cybersecurity budgets in the coming year. Of these, 30% expect increases of 10% or more, while 41% plan rises between 5–9.99%.
The report also noted that many organisations are struggling on multiple fronts, including keeping up with the pace of cyber threats, navigating reactive regulations, and building strong security cultures.
Sophos said the findings underline the need for robust AI governance frameworks that clearly define policies and enforce oversight, especially as AI becomes central to business operations.
