As the RSAC 2026 Conference hit its stride on day two, it became apparent that while AI and agentic security dominate seller messaging, there remains a significant gap in communicating the actual business value to enterprise leaders.

The technology sector has rapidly adopted AI capabilities, but enterprise buyers are just beginning their journey. That irony is creating a disconnect between enterprise pitches and operational reality, according to Dave Vellante (pictured, right), co-founder and chief analyst of theCUBE Research.

“The technology industry is in the third inning,” Vellante noted, echoing research on AI’s maturity curve. “But the buyers are just getting started…. There’s a gap.”

Vellante and Jon Oltsik (left), principal analyst at theCUBE Research, unpacked the key themes of day two of the RSAC 2026 Conference on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the need for enterprises to better articulate the business value of AI and how agentic security will redefine enterprise defenses. (* Disclosure below.)

Establishing the future of agentic security

To bridge the gap between AI hype and practical application, providers must move beyond explaining how their technology works and start addressing why it matters for the business. Broadcom Inc., for instance, is proactively making the case that as AI-driven attacks overwhelm traditional perimeter defenses, enterprises will need more practical and operational approaches to lateral threat prevention and zero trust. These shifts in focus are essential because the fundamental architecture of cybersecurity is on the verge of a massive transformation, Oltsik noted.

“I’m hearing the same rhetoric and the same line from every vendor,” Oltsik said. “There’s too much how, not enough why … It’s important because the business is going to change because there’s the opportunity to change your whole security stack — not because you want to, because you need to. The industry’s got to do a better job of articulating this and show some value, show some uniqueness.”

Clearly, the old logic of cybersecurity is starting to fray, as legacy control models prove increasingly mismatched to threats that move with greater speed and autonomy. As organizations look ahead, the consensus is that the first line of defense will evolve from static perimeters to intelligent, autonomous systems. Security teams will increasingly rely on automated tools to monitor behaviour and enforce policies at scale, Oltsik explained.

“The first line of defense is going to be agents. The agents will be monitoring behavior … They’ll report on anomalous activity, they’ll enforce policy, and they’ll do that on behalf of users,” Oltsik explained. “Everything that we’ve done in security over the past 20 years is going to change and it’s going to change quickly, so that’s the urgency that I’m feeling here.”

Here’s the complete day two wrap, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of RSAC 2026 Conference:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the RSAC 2026 Conference. Sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE