Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key part of enterprise operations. Businesses are using AI to automate tasks, improve customer service, analyze data and help employees work more efficiently. Many organizations are deploying AI agents that can perform tasks and interact with enterprise applications with limited human involvement.
While AI is improving productivity, it is also creating new cybersecurity challenges. AI applications, AI agents and cloud-based AI workloads are expanding the attack surface for businesses. Organizations now need to secure AI identities, protect AI workloads, monitor AI activity and defend their infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. This is driving higher demand for cybersecurity solutions built for the AI era.
Per the McKinsey & Company report, AI-related cybersecurity spending is expected to increase from about 4% of enterprise cybersecurity budgets in 2026 to nearly 15% in 2029, reflecting growing demand for AI security solutions. As enterprise AI adoption continues to grow, Fortinet, Inc. FTNT, Okta OKTA, SentinelOne S and Zscaler ZS are well-positioned to benefit from rising demand for AI security solutions.
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Fortinet provides cybersecurity solutions that help organizations protect their networks, cloud environments and endpoints. As enterprises invest in AI infrastructure, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company is expanding its portfolio to secure AI data centers, AI workloads and high-speed AI networks. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Fortinet has introduced next-generation firewalls designed for AI data centers and high-speed AI networks to secure AI data centers and internal AI traffic. The company is strengthening its Security Fabric platform with AI-powered security operations, managed detection and response, endpoint security and secure networking, allowing customers to manage their security through a unified platform. With AI driving higher demand for both networking and security products, Fortinet remains well-positioned to benefit from rising investments in AI infrastructure and enterprise AI deployments.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.15 per share, up by a penny over the past 60 days, suggesting 14.1% growth from the figure reported in 2026.
Fortinet, Inc. Price and Consensus
Fortinet, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Fortinet, Inc. Quote
Okta is a leading identity security company that helps organizations securely manage user identities and access to applications. As enterprises deploy more AI agents and AI applications, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company is expanding its identity platform to help customers securely adopt AI.
Okta recently launched Okta for AI Agents and Auth0 for AI Agents, which enable organizations to discover AI agents, manage their identities, control their access and govern them throughout their lifecycle. The company believes AI agents are becoming a new type of digital identity, making identity security increasingly important as AI adoption grows. Okta has partnered with leading AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Amazon Bedrock and ServiceNow, to integrate identity security across different AI platforms. These initiatives position Okta to benefit from the growing need to secure AI identities as enterprises expand their AI deployments.
The consensus mark for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at $3.83 per share, up 1.1% over the past 60 days, suggesting 9.4% growth from the figure reported in fiscal 2026.
Okta, Inc. Price and Consensus
Okta, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Okta, Inc. Quote
SentinelOne provides AI-powered endpoint, cloud and identity security solutions that help organizations detect and respond to cyber threats in real time. As enterprises expand their AI infrastructure, this Zacks Rank #2 company is investing in technologies that protect AI workloads, AI applications and AI runtime environments.
The company recently launched Wayfinder Frontier AI Services, which combines frontier AI models with human expertise to identify real-world attack paths and prioritize the most critical security risks. SentinelOne is expanding its AI-powered Singularity platform with Purple AI, cloud security and runtime protection to defend AI workloads across cloud, Linux and Mac environments. With AI expanding the attack surface, demand for autonomous security that can respond to threats at machine speed should continue to rise. This positions SentinelOne to benefit as enterprises invest more in securing AI infrastructure and AI-driven environments.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings is pegged at 36 cents per share, up by a penny over the past 60 days, suggesting 80% growth from the figure reported in fiscal 2026.
SentinelOne, Inc. Price and Consensus
SentinelOne, Inc. price-consensus-chart | SentinelOne, Inc. Quote
Zscaler provides cloud-based cybersecurity solutions that help organizations securely connect users, devices and applications. As enterprises adopt AI across their operations, this Zacks Rank #2 company is expanding its platform to help customers securely use AI applications, protect sensitive data and enforce Zero Trust security.
Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange platform can discover AI applications being used across an organization, control which AI tools employees can access and prevent sensitive data from being shared with unauthorized AI applications. The company has added AI-powered features that help security teams detect threats faster and automate routine security tasks. With AI creating new security challenges, the demand for Zscaler’s Zero Trust architecture should continue to rise. As more enterprises deploy AI applications and AI agents, Zscaler remains well-positioned to benefit from the growing need to secure AI use across users, applications and data.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $4.14 per share, up 3.2% over the past 60 days, suggesting 26.2% growth from the figure reported in fiscal 2025.
Zscaler, Inc. Price and Consensus
Zscaler, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Zscaler, Inc. Quote
Beyond Nvidia: AI's Second Wave Is Here
The AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren't likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. AI’s second wave is moving from infrastructure to implementation and these companies are at the forefront of this transition, positioned to become what Amazon and Google were to the internet era.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).