AI Security becomes cybersecurity’s biggest market category

IT-Harvest says AI Security now includes 657 vendors, topping Governance, Risk & Compliance at 618 and reshaping how the cybersecurity market is organized. The shift signals how fast enterprises are building security around AI models, applications, agents, data and infrastructure.

Why it matters: - AI Security overtaking GRC shows the cybersecurity market is reorganizing around AI risk, not just traditional compliance. - The change reflects how quickly AI has moved from an innovation project to a core security concern inside enterprises. - Security teams now have to address AI models, applications, agents, data and infrastructure as part of the attack surface.

What happened: - IT-Harvest projects the AI Security category now covers 657 vendors. - Governance, Risk & Compliance currently covers 618 vendors. - The vendor count makes AI Security the largest category in cybersecurity, according to IT-Harvest. - Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest, said AI Security reached that scale in less than two years. - IT-Harvest initiated AI Security as a separate category in 2024. - The 2025 edition of Security Yearbook placed 80 vendors in the AI Security bucket. - On March 6, Stiennon said the company had complete data on 378 AI Security vendors across 21 subcategories. - Existing subscribers can track 567 AI Security vendors on the platform today. - IT-Harvest expects to add another 90 identified vendors in the coming weeks.

The details: - IT-Harvest tracks cybersecurity vendors and products across thousands of companies worldwide. - The firm maps vendors into categories as markets evolve and new technologies emerge. - IT-Harvest describes itself as an AI-first analyst firm focused on the long tail of the market. - The AI Security category splits into two main subcategories. - One subcategory covers security for AI, including guardrails, model protections and data federation. - The other covers AI used to solve security problems such as email and phishing detection, deepfake detection, SOC automation, pentesting, vulnerability management and DLP. - IT-Harvest says its platform tracks 4,435 cybersecurity vendors and their products. - Subscribers use the platform for decision support, market research, competitive analysis and mapping security stacks to NIST Cybersecurity Framework and MITRE. - IT-Harvest provides market intelligence for security leaders, investors, consultants, vendors and other industry participants. - The company’s contact information lists Richard Stiennon and a phone number: +1 650-388-6402. - The release links to IT-Harvest’s website for more information. - The release also includes social links for LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook, YouTube and X.

Between the lines: - The category shift suggests investors and buyers are treating AI security as a distinct market, not a feature set inside existing tools. - The vendor surge also hints that established cybersecurity companies are racing to add AI-related products while startups fill new niches. - Stiennon said every vendor will adopt AI within a short time frame, signaling that AI features may soon become table stakes across the industry.

What's next: - IT-Harvest expects the AI Security market to keep expanding as more vendors enter the space. - The company plans to pull in the additional vendors it has already identified. - Established cybersecurity vendors are likely to continue expanding AI-focused offerings as demand grows. - The market may keep fragmenting into more subcategories as new AI security use cases emerge.

The bottom line: - AI Security has moved from a fast-growing niche to the biggest category in cybersecurity, and the vendor race is still accelerating.