Cybercrime is on the verge of full automation. In its latest Security Predictions Report for 2026, global cybersecurity leader Trend Micro predicts that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will enable cybercriminals to run entire attack campaigns autonomously, creating a new era of speed, scale, and complexity for enterprise defenders.
“2026 will be remembered as the year cybercrime stopped being a service industry and became fully automated,” said Ryan Flores, Lead of Forward-Looking Threat Research at Trend Micro.
“AI agents will discover, exploit, and monetize weaknesses without human input. The challenge for defenders is no longer simply detecting attacks — it’s keeping pace with the machine-driven tempo of threats,” he added.
The report highlights how generative AI and agentic systems are reshaping the economics of cybercrime. Enterprises can expect autonomous intrusion campaigns, polymorphic malware that constantly rewrites itself, and deepfake-driven social engineering to become standard tools.
Automation also threatens businesses with synthetic code, poisoned AI models, and compromised modules embedded in legitimate workflows, blurring the line between innovation and exploitation.
Trend Micro warns of AI-driven cybercrime
Ryan Flores, Lead of Forward-Looking Threat Research at Trend Micro
According to the report, key targets in 2026 will include hybrid cloud environments, software supply chains, and AI infrastructures.
Threat actors are expected to exploit poisoned open-source packages, malicious container images, and over-privileged cloud identities, while state-sponsored groups increasingly adopt “harvest-now, decrypt-later” tactics to future-proof espionage in the quantum computing era.
Ransomware is also evolving into an AI-powered ecosystem, capable of identifying victims, exploiting vulnerabilities, and even negotiating via automated “extortion bots.”
According to Trend Micro, these attacks will become faster, harder to trace, and more persistent, driven by data intelligence rather than encryption alone.
To address the issue, Trend Micro recommends that organizations shift from reactive defense to proactive resilience, embedding security across AI adoption, cloud operations, and supply chain management.
Companies that integrate ethical AI, adaptive defense, and human oversight will be best positioned to thrive in this new cyber landscape.
The full report, “The AI-fication of Cyberthreats – Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2026,” is available here.
