Enterprise security teams are increasingly turning to inference security platforms as they struggle to defend against a new wave of AI-driven runtime attacks. These attacks exploit vulnerabilities in AI agents operating in production environments, where traditional security measures often lack visibility and control.

The shift is driven by the speed and sophistication of modern attacks. According to CrowdStrike's 2025 Global Threat Report, breakout times – the time it takes for an attacker to move from initial access to lateral movement within a network – can be as short as 51 seconds. This rapid pace leaves security teams with little time to react, especially considering that patch windows often extend to hours or even days. The same report indicated that 79% of detections were malware-free, with attackers employing hands-on keyboard techniques to bypass traditional endpoint defenses.

Mike Riemer, field CISO at Ivanti, highlighted the accelerating pace of weaponization following patch releases. "Threat actors are reverse engineering patches within 72 hours," Riemer told VentureBeat. "If a customer doesn't patch within 72 hours of release, they're open to exploit. The speed has been enhanced greatly by AI." This shrinking window of opportunity puts immense pressure on enterprises, many of which still rely on manual patching processes that can take weeks or months to complete.

Inference security platforms are designed to address these challenges by providing real-time monitoring and protection for AI applications. These platforms analyze the behavior of AI models and their interactions with the environment, detecting and preventing malicious activities such as data poisoning, model evasion, and adversarial attacks. By focusing on runtime behavior, inference security platforms can identify threats that traditional security tools might miss.

The rise of AI-powered attacks represents a significant shift in the threat landscape. As AI becomes more prevalent in enterprise operations, security teams must adapt their strategies and adopt new technologies to protect their systems. The deployment of inference security platforms is emerging as a critical step in this evolution, enabling organizations to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated threats.