2026 $7.5B Security Spend Signals AI Arms Race: Gartner
Deepening AI adoption and a widening talent shortage are combining to push Australian information security spending past AU$7.5 billion in 2026, a 9.5 per cent increase on 2025, according to new Gartner research.
Security software is the fastest growing segment, forecast to rise 12.3 per cent to more than AU$3.3 billion, driven by demand for application security, data security and privacy tools, and infrastructure protection.
Security services - encompassing consulting, professional services and managed security service providers (MSSPs) - remain the largest single spending category. Gartner forecasts the segment will reach more than AU$3.7 billion in 2026, up 6.9 per cent. Analysts attribute this growth partly to organisations outsourcing security to fill capability gaps they cannot hire for domestically.
"This growth is fuelled by a growing, and increasingly critical, need for AI-literate security personnel, which is amplifying the continuing cybersecurity talent shortage in Australia," said Gartner VP Analyst Richard Addiscott. "This is resulting in organisations needing to depend more on managed security service providers to fill skill gaps and enhance their security capabilities."
The talent shortfall is well documented. Independent research by ISACA found 54 per cent of Australian cybersecurity teams are understaffed, with 58 per cent reporting unfilled positions in 2025.
The Australian Computer Society's 2025 Digital Pulse report estimates 54,000 more skilled cyber professionals will be needed by 2030. CyberCX and Per Capita research has forecast a shortfall of up to 30,000 unfilled cyber positions across Australia in coming years.
Gartner predicts more than 75 per cent of enterprises will be using AI-amplified cybersecurity products across most use cases by 2028, up from less than 25 per cent in 2025. The firm says vendors are embedding AI-driven threat detection and automated incident response into mainstream product lines.
Addiscott described GenAI tools as increasingly deployed because security teams "leveraging traditional security measures struggle to scale and keep pace with a constantly evolving threat environment." Gartner provided no Australian case study data to support this characterisation, and no sector breakdown was disclosed.