An updated edition of the May 26, 2026 article.
Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT priority. It has become a business necessity. As companies move more workloads to the cloud and adopt artificial intelligence (AI), cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated. Ransomware, phishing attacks and large-scale data breaches are now more frequent and far more expensive. A single successful attack can disrupt operations, damage a company's reputation and lead to significant financial losses.
This changing threat landscape is creating a massive opportunity for cybersecurity companies. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $218.98 billion in 2025 to nearly $699.39 billion by 2034, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.8%. Growth is being fueled by stricter regulations, rising digital transformation and the need for stronger protection across cloud environments and AI-powered applications. Leaders like Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW, CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. CRWD and Zscaler, Inc. ZS are already monetizing this demand with platforms built for modern threats.
AI is becoming the biggest catalyst for the cybersecurity industry. Traditional security tools largely react after an attack has occurred. AI changes that by helping companies identify suspicious activity, detect threats earlier and automate responses before serious damage is done. As cyberattacks become faster and more complex, AI-powered security is quickly becoming a must-have rather than an optional feature.
Companies like Cisco Systems, Inc. CSCO, Fortinet, Inc. FTNT, Cloudflare, Inc. NET and Okta, Inc. OKTA are well-positioned to benefit from this trend. Each company is embedding AI across its security platform to improve threat detection, simplify security management and deliver better outcomes for customers. These investments not only strengthen their competitive positions but also open new long-term growth opportunities.
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Cisco Systems offers cybersecurity products and services that prevent unauthorized access to system resources and protect from worms, spam, viruses and other malware. The company has been integrating AI into its product portfolios across networking, security, collaboration and observability.
Strong demand for Cisco Systems’ products in developing AI infrastructure has been a game-changer for the company. In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, CSCO received $1.9 billion worth of AI infrastructure orders from web-scale customers, bringing the total year-to-date orders to $5.3 billion.
Data center switching orders continue to register solid double-digit year-over-year growth in the fiscal third quarter, implying strong demand. These orders are coming from some of the biggest players in cloud computing and reflect a growing demand for AI-optimized networks. Cisco Systems is expanding its AI portfolio for data centers with solutions like the Unified Nexus Dashboard, Cisco Intelligent Packet Flow, configurable AI PODs and 400G bidirectional (BiDi) optics.
As cyber threats become more sophisticated, CSCO’s AI-powered platform gives it a competitive edge. These innovations are likely to accelerate customer adoption and support strong long-term revenue growth for the company. Currently, Cisco Systems sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Fortinet provides networking and security solutions to enterprises, service providers and government entities across 100 countries. The company is using AI to make its cybersecurity platform faster, smarter and more automated.
FTNT has embedded AI across the Fortinet Security Fabric through its FortiAI platform, which helps security teams detect threats, automate incident response and simplify security operations using generative AI. This reduces response times and improves productivity for customers facing increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.
Fortinet is also applying AI to enhance network security, secure access service edge (SASE) and security operations (SecOps) solutions. Its AI-powered threat intelligence, supported by FortiGuard Labs, analyzes billions of security events each day to identify emerging threats and deliver real-time protection. These capabilities help customers improve security while lowering operational complexity.
Fortinet's expanding AI portfolio is supporting demand from enterprises modernizing their security infrastructure. As organizations increasingly adopt AI while facing more advanced cyber threats, this Zacks Rank #1 company's integrated platform and AI-driven innovations position it to win larger enterprise deployments, drive recurring revenues and sustain long-term growth.
Cloudflare is a global web infrastructure and security company. The company is leveraging the AI boom to expand beyond networking and cybersecurity into AI infrastructure and developer services.
Cloudflare has introduced a broad suite of AI offerings, including Workers AI, Vectorize, AI Gateway and Durable Objects, enabling developers to build, deploy and scale AI applications directly on Cloudflare's global edge network. By running AI inference closer to end users, Cloudflare reduces latency, lowers costs and improves application performance.
The company is also using AI to strengthen its cybersecurity platform. Its security solutions rely on machine learning to detect malicious traffic, stop automated bot attacks and identify emerging threats in real time. As AI-driven cyberattacks become more sophisticated, these capabilities are becoming increasingly valuable for enterprise customers.
Cloudflare's AI investments are already contributing to customer growth, with enterprises adopting its platform for both AI application delivery and security. As AI workloads continue to expand globally, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company's edge infrastructure and integrated platform position it to generate higher enterprise spending and sustain long-term revenue growth.
Okta is a cloud-based Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution provider. The company is using AI to enhance its identity security platform while helping enterprises adopt AI applications securely.
Okta has introduced AI-powered capabilities across its Identity Threat Protection and Identity Security Posture Management solutions to detect unusual login behavior, identify compromised accounts and automate risk-based access decisions in real time. These features improve security while reducing the burden on IT teams.
Okta is also enabling organizations to securely manage access to generative AI applications and AI agents through its Workforce Identity Cloud and Customer Identity Cloud platforms. As businesses deploy more AI tools, identity management is becoming increasingly critical, creating a new growth opportunity for the company.
With identity remaining at the center of enterprise security, this Zacks Rank #2 company’s AI initiatives strengthen customer retention, expand cross-selling opportunities and position the company to benefit from the growing adoption of AI-powered enterprise applications.
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Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO): Free Stock Analysis Report
Fortinet, Inc. (FTNT): Free Stock Analysis Report
Okta, Inc. (OKTA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Cloudflare, Inc. (NET): Free Stock Analysis Report
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW): Free Stock Analysis Report
Zscaler, Inc. (ZS): Free Stock Analysis Report
CrowdStrike (CRWD): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).