Full Report
Startups at Infosecurity Europe focus on attack surface management and improving security data, even as some new vendors avoid AI-led marketing
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Cybersecurity Startups Pivot Away from "AI" Labels, Focus on Value and Integration
## Summary
Cybersecurity startups are strategically avoiding the "AI" label in their branding, instead emphasizing practical solutions focused on operational efficiency, GRC, and Attack Surface Management (ASM). This pivot is aimed at appealing to risk-averse enterprise CISOs by promising tangible value, cost savings, and better utilization of existing security tools, especially given the accelerating pace of cyberattacks.
## Key Details
- **Date:** Recent industry context (as reflected in discussions at events like Infosecurity Europe).
- **Companies Involved:** Cytidel, RMI Cyber, Nagomi Cyber, Commugen, Datambit, Astrix, Mindgard, and others.
- **Category:** Market Strategy / Product Positioning Shift.
## The Story
Fast-growing security vendors are deliberately downplaying the use of "AI" in their public descriptions. Instead, they are concentrating on solving immediate CISO pain points: improving security operations insights, streamlining GRC, enhancing ASM, and demonstrating clear ROI by helping organizations maximize the value of their current security stack ("effective security with what you have"). Companies like Cytidel focus on automation for speed, while others like Nagomi Cyber aim to prove that 70% of breaches are preventable with proper existing tool usage. This contrasts with the competitive environment where established vendors dominate large enterprises, but startups see an opportunity to offer precision and speed in targeted areas, often with more flexible commercial terms for early adopters.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **Focus on Tangible Value:** Avoiding the AI hype allows vendors to compete on demonstrated performance, integration capabilities, and cost-effectiveness rather than speculative technology.
- **Easier Enterprise Adoption:** Lowering the "risk perception" associated with new technology, especially avoiding internal scrutiny often applied to generalized "AI" claims.
- **Market Segmentation:** Smaller firms can carve out niches where large platforms are slow to adapt (e.g., securing non-human identities like APIs, as seen with Astrix).
### For Competitors
- **Pressure on Established Vendors:** Large platform vendors face pressure to demonstrate the real-world effectiveness and speed of their own "AI" capabilities, or risk being perceived as slow and constrained by legacy systems.
- **Validation of "Integrator" Models:** Vendors succeeding by integrating with existing stacks validate the "best-of-breed" approach over monolithic platforms.
### For Customers
- **Improved ROI:** CISOs can expect closer alignment between security spend and actual risk reduction, driven by tools that optimize existing investments.
- **Targeted Solutions:** Access to niche, high-precision tools that address specific, high-priority gaps (like deepfake detection or securing service identities) that larger platforms might overlook.
### For the Market
- **Maturation of Messaging:** Indicates a market shift where security buyers are demanding proof and utility over buzzwords, forcing vendors to align product development with immediate operational needs.
- **Rise of the "Chainer":** Increased focus on tools that connect existing data feeds and security actions seamlessly (e.g., RMI Cyber's goal to "chain together" actions).
## Technical Implications
The focus is less on novel algorithmic breakthroughs and more on **applied automation and intelligent decision support** using existing logs, threat feeds, and infrastructure (e.g., Cytidel using existing infrastructure data to counter fast attacks). There is an explicit technical interest in areas like GRC automation (Commugen) and specialized detection for synthetic media (Datambit's deepfake ML).
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Startups are positioning themselves as agile problem-solvers and integrators, targeting weaknesses in the current security operational fabric, rather than direct feature parity replacements for established giants.
- **Competitive Advantage:** Speed, precision, and adaptability derived from being unconstrained by legacy platforms offer a significant edge in addressing emerging threat dynamics. Early-adopter pricing provides a commercial incentive.
- **Challenges:** Proving that their superior results significantly outweigh the entrenched trust and extensive distribution of traditional vendors remains the primary hurdle, especially in highly regulated sectors requiring established certifications.
## Industry Reactions
- **Analyst Opinions:** Analysts like those at GigaOm confirm that traditional vendors lead large, complex enterprises, but startups are disruptive in modern, tighter stacks. Richmond Advisory suggests early engagement with startups offers commercial benefits and access to potentially market-leading IP.
- **Expert Commentary:** Experts note that startups must deliver results that are "way better than other vendors" to overcome CISO risk aversion.
## Future Outlook
- **Predictions and Expectations:** We should expect continued specialization, with value delivery (ROI, integration, speed) becoming the primary marketing metric over generalized technology claims.
- **What to watch for:** How quickly these focused solutions gain traction against the broad capabilities offered by major platform consolidators, particularly where startups can demonstrate significant cost reduction ($ savings).
## For Security Professionals
Practitioners should investigate these new offerings for their ability to provide immediate, measurable improvements in efficiency—specifically in ASM, GRC tooling, and overall data utilization. These tools promise to reduce tool sprawl and complexity by making existing investments work harder, which directly addresses common CISO budget and performance mandates.