Business
AI-First Businesses are Paying an "AI Speed Tax" when Recovering from Cybersecurity Incidents, according to Fastly’s Global Security Research Report
SAN FRANCISCO, February 25, 2026--Fastly, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLY), a leader in global edge cloud platforms, today published the findings from its fourth annual Global Security Research Report. It reveals that AI-first businesses – those integrating AI into key processes and offerings from the outset rather than as a secondary enhancement – are paying an AI tax by failing to modernize security in step with AI’s rapid expansion across IT infrastructure. These businesses report taking nearly seven mont
About this update from Fastly, Inc.
[{"type":"image","alt":"","displaySize":"","headline":null,"caption":"","credit":null,"className":"","disableSlideshowImg":false,"size":{"original":{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https://media.zenfs.com/en/business-wire.com/2ea28d48e5881559c7899d80f9c211ba"},"resized":{"url":"https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/sc.TokONQdb5K917XZQA8g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MDtjZj13ZWJw/https://media.zenfs.com/en/business-wire.com/2ea28d48e5881559c7899d80f9c211ba","width":480,"height":270}},"lazy":false},{"type":"text","content":"Fast moving AI adopters are paying the price with 80 day longer recovery times, higher breach costs and expanding attack surfaces ","length":129,"tagName":"p","attribs":{}},{"type":"text","content":"SAN FRANCISCO, February 25, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fastly, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLY), a leader in global edge cloud platforms, today published the findings from its fourth annual Global Security Research Report. It reveals that AI-first businesses – those integrating AI into key processes and offerings from the outset rather than as a secondary enhancement – are paying an AI tax by failing to modernize security in step with AI’s rapid expansion across IT infrastructure. These businesses report taking nearly seven months on average to fully recover from cybersecurity incidents, 80 days longer than businesses that do not identify as AI-first.","length":642,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":"The implications of this AI Speed Tax are significant in today’s real-time economy. The financial toll of a cybersecurity incident for AI-first businesses exceeds that of non-AI-first businesses by more than 135%. This increased financial impact reflects both the longer recovery timelines and a higher rate of AI-specific compromise. In fact, almost half (44%) of AI-first organizations claim that AI was directly exploited in their most recent security incident, compared to just 6% for non-AI-first organizations. These findings highlight how AI-native systems expand the potential attack surface, introducing new layers like agentic workflows and decentralized data flows, all of which complicate defense.","length":709,"tagName":"p"},{"type":"text","content":""The speed of AI adoption is reshaping security infrastructure almost overnight. For AI-first businesses, the priority isn’t to slow down innovation — it’s to modernize security at the same rate th...