A new SANS Institute survey reveals that 78% of organizations reported confirmed or suspected AI-enabled attacks in the past year, while AI adoption in security operations surged from 50% to 78% over the same period. The 2026 AI Survey Insights report, based on responses from 536 cybersecurity and IT practitioners globally, shows that 61% of practitioners now use AI in red team work, up from 33% in 2025, yet only 27% describe their deployment as mature production. Governance struggles to keep pace, with 76% of security teams holding a governance role for enterprise AI but more than half lacking formal audit frameworks. Additionally, 63% of practitioners report significant AI shortcomings in threat detection and response, up from 45% in 2025, while 73% say AI changed their team's training requirements, up from 51% the previous year.