ESET announces a €40 million investment to expand its R&D team and accelerate the development of a multi-layered AI security stack, a new generation of AI SOC and AI models designed with a security-first approach. Since March 2026, ESET has examined 800,000 unique AI skills, flagging 25,000 as suspicious and blocking over 3,000 as malicious
ESET, the global European cybersecurity market leader, announced a €40 million investment in the future of AI-enhanced cybersecurity, signaling the rapid evolution of a new attack surface created by autonomous, agentic AI systems.
The commitment – communicated by Richard Marko, CEO of ESET on the occasion ofESET World 2026 – comes in response to an already visible change in the data collected by ESET itself. Since March 2026, ESET technologies have scanned nearly 800,000 unique AI skills – modular components that instruct AI agents on how to perform tasks, use tools, access services and interact with external systems. Approximately 25,000 of these skills were classified as suspicious and over 3,000 blocked because they were considered clearly malicious. The overall figure represents a 13-fold increase compared to the approximately 60,000 publicly available skills observed at the beginning of the year. According to ESET researchers, AI skills are part of a rapidly growing layer in the software supply chain, often connected to sensitive systems via external repositories, plugins, datasets and third-party services.
“Cybersecurity is entering a completely new era,” said Richard Marko, CEO of ESET. "AI is no longer just a defense tool. It is becoming an integral part of the attack surface itself. Our investment aims to ensure that AI strengthens cybersecurity rather than weakens it, developing technologies capable of protecting organizations in a world dominated by autonomous AI."
The initiative also aims to enhance ESET's technological independence and European sovereignty in the field of cybersecurity at a time when access to the most advanced AI systems is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large global technology companies. “We believe that the future of cybersecurity cannot depend entirely on models controlled by Big Tech,” added Marko. “In cybersecurity, sovereignty matters.”
Supported by a three-year hiring plan that will bring ESET's R&D team to 1,000 researchers and engineers, the €40 million investment will focus on three strategic areas:
- independent foundational AI models designed with a security-first approach;
- a complete multi-layered AI security stack;
- a new generation of AI SOC (Security Operations Center).
“ESET has long been at the forefront of applying AI to cybersecurity,” said Juraj Jánošík, VP of Artificial Intelligence at ESET. "What is changing today is the role of AI itself. AI tools are entering everyday work, agentic systems are expanding the attack surface, and security teams need faster responses to threats. This investment allows us to operate on all fronts: protecting the use of AI, developing AI models for cybersecurity, and introducing autonomous capabilities into security operations under human supervision."
Independent security-first AI models
ESET will accelerate the development of its own security-focused AI models designed specifically for cybersecurity applications. Unlike generalist AI systems trained on generic content from the Internet, ESET's models will be optimized using cybersecurity telemetry and real-world threat intelligence gathered over the company's nearly 35 years of operation.
The company will also continue to expand its existing AI technologies (such as ESET LiveGrid, ESET LiveCortex and ESET LiveGuard), while also exploring emerging AI models, including 'World Models' capable of understanding behaviors, contexts and intentions within digital environments.
A complete AI security stack
As AI becomes increasingly integrated into daily business operations, ESET is developing a comprehensive AI-native security architecture designed to protect organizations from new risks and threats generated by AI. The investment will also include the development of ESET Secure AI Relay, a secure intermediate layer between users, AI agents, business applications and artificial intelligence models.
The company will also build network-level security protections for communications between AI agents. ESET AI Skills Checker (a free tool presented at the RSAC 2026 Conference), together with its advanced versions integrated into ESET products, has been specifically designed for the new ecosystem of agentic AI systems.
The new generation of AI SOC
A new generation of AI technologies for Security Operations Centers will be designed to address the growing scale and complexity of modern detection and response environments. More than replacing analysts with AI agents, ESET aims to fundamentally rethink how cybersecurity telemetry is processed, correlated and interpreted. The company's vision is to make advanced cybersecurity, powered by AI, accessible not only to large enterprises, but also to medium- and small-sized organizations through highly automated and supervised protection technologies.
“Cybersecurity cannot evolve by simply adding more alerts, more dashboards and more complexity,” concluded Marko. "The sector needs a new evolutionary leap. We believe that AI must help make excellent cybersecurity simple and accessible to all."
