Cybersecurity experts have flagged a shift in threat dynamics after the emergence of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools capable of identifying and exploiting system vulnerabilities at high speed, raising concerns for financial systems and critical infrastructure.Ramesh Lakshminarayanan, Group Head – Technology and Digital and CIO at HDFC Bank, said the biggest change is the collapse in response time. “The time to react is absolutely dramatically reduced… from days now, we are actually down to minutes and seconds,” he said, referring to how AI systems can detect “Day Zero vulnerabilities” that were earlier difficult to identify.
The discussion follows concerns around new AI models that can scan complex systems such as operating systems and browsers quickly, raising the possibility of misuse if accessed by malicious actors.
For the full interview, watch the accompanying videoNitin Mishra, Executive Director at National Payments Corporation of India, said the risks are not entirely new but are becoming more structured. “The risk existed earlier also… but the orchestration way will keep changing,” he said, noting that institutions are already investing in AI-led detection and response systems.Nandkumar Saravade, former CEO of ReBIT, highlighted how quickly vulnerabilities are now being weaponised. He said the time taken to convert a vulnerability into an exploit has dropped sharply from years to hours, increasing pressure on security teams.Kapil Vaswani, Founder of SPARC at the Indian Institute of Science, said the shift requires a change in approach. “We have to start assuming that our systems are going to be breached,” he said, adding that resilience and system continuity will become more important than prevention alone.Also Read | IT services face ‘biggest shift in 35 years’ as AI reshapes industry: Recognize Co-founder D’SouzaExperts said the financial sector remains relatively better prepared due to regulatory oversight, but flagged risks in other sectors such as power, telecom, and transport, where system dependencies are high and visibility into imported technology components is limited.They also pointed to rising technology spending as companies strengthen cyber defences, with institutions expected to invest more in AI tools, monitoring systems, and workforce capabilities in the near term.Catch all the latest updates from the stock market here
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