Who Will Protect Our Money in an AI Cyberwar?

The next cyberattack could unfold without a hacker sitting at a screen or a security employee waiting to spot the intrusion. Instead, artificial intelligence could drive both the attempt to break in and the effort to stop it.

In that scenario, one AI system would search for a vulnerability and develop a way to exploit it. Another would monitor for signs of an attack and try to block its path, turning cybersecurity into a contest between automated systems.

For institutions entrusted with money, the prospect raises a pressing question: how can they protect financial assets when attacks may develop faster than people can assess them? The challenge is not simply detecting suspicious activity, but deciding when and how to intervene.

AI could help defenders respond more quickly, but relying on automated protection also places greater weight on the quality of those systems and the oversight behind them. An effective defence would need to distinguish a genuine threat from legitimate activity without treating automation as a guarantee of safety.

The emerging contest does not remove human responsibility. Even if machines carry out more of the attack and defence, the institutions safeguarding people’s money will still have to answer for how those tools are deployed—and what happens when they fail.