The 2026 Exposure Management Shift: AI, Trust, and Data Confidence
by Brinqa, Security Experts//5 min read/
If AI is already influencing your security decisions, you’ve probably felt the pressure shift. Suddenly it’s not just about speed – it’s about being able to explain, trust, and stand behind those decisions.
The exposure management shift is already underway. Forrester notes that while AI-powered security capabilities are becoming mainstream, trust, governance, and explainability will determine whether those investments deliver real value.
This page brings together perspectives from security leaders navigating that shift, and what they believe will matter most as exposure management evolves in 2026.
The Bigger Picture: What’s Driving the Exposure Management Shift?
- 50+% of enterprises will use AI security platforms to protect their AI investments by 2028 (Gartner)
- 60% of Fortune 100 companies will appoint a Head of AI Governance in 2026 (Forrester)
- ~70% of AI initiatives stall due to data and process gaps (IDC)
Part One: The 3 Themes Shaping Exposure Management in 2026
In 2026, security leaders are being asked to operate with greater confidence – in their data, their decisions, and their ability to explain risk reduction to the business.
We pulled together trends and insights from leading industry analysts and security leaders to identify three key themes shaping exposure management in 2026:
1. AI Becomes Practical, Governed, and Explainable
AI is moving out of experimentation and into operational security workflows – raising expectations around transparency, governance, and measurable value.
“Large language models are uniquely good at unlocking data we’ve never had access to, but we’ve got to be able to believe that we can count on it.”
– Ken Ricketts, CISO in Residence, Insight Partners
As automation becomes embedded in daily operations, leaders are being held accountable not just for outcomes, but for the reasoning behind them.
In 2026, practical AI means pairing automation with transparency, governance, and strong data foundations – while preserving explainability and accountability.
Hear more from Insight Partners CISO, Ken Ricketts:
2. Trust Becomes the New Security Metric
As security decisions accelerate and AI plays a bigger role, trust becomes a gating factor between teams, across functions, and at the executive level.
Exposure management programs don’t stall because teams lack insight, they stall because no one feels confident enough to act on it together. Trust shows up in two places:
- Trust between teams – clear ownership, accountability, and alignment
- Trust in the data – confidence that prioritization and decisions are defensible
AI enables unprecedented speed – and the faster decisions move, the more alignment matters. Trust, between teams and in the data, becomes the factor that determines whether insight turns into action or gets stuck in review cycles.
“When you get into large organizations and automation starts to scale the risk, the loss of trust is potentially a new security failure.”
Erik Helms, CRO, Brinqa
3. Resilience Will Depend on Data Confidence
Resilience is increasingly defined by how quickly organizations can validate reality, confirm remediation, and adapt to emerging risk.
Data confidence underpins everything – AI, automation, trust, and resilience. Knowing what’s real, what’s been addressed, and what’s changing allows teams to move decisively and communicate progress with credibility.
“If you can’t explain why exposure matters, particularly when AI is influencing decisions, then trust breaks down.”
Brad Hibbert, CSO & COO, Brinqa
Resilience today isn’t just about recovery. It’s about knowing what’s real – quickly and confidently. And that depends on one thing: confidence in the data behind every decision.
Hear more on this from Brinqa’s CSO & COO, Brad Hibbert:
What Boards Expect From Security Leaders in 2026 and Beyond
Analysts can point to trends, but boards care about outcomes. They want to understand risk, see movement in the right direction, and trust the story behind the numbers.
As exposure management evolves, security leaders are being asked to answer a consistent set of questions:
- Are you addressing advanced persistent threats?
- Are you identifying emerging risk early?
- Are you reducing security cost and complexity?
- Are you strengthening governance and compliance?
CISO Ken Ricketts shares what those conversations actually look like — and what security leaders need to do differently in 2026.
Ultimately, these shifts matter for one key reason: they change how risk decisions are made, and how confidently leaders can stand behind them.
The next section offers a practical, five-step playbook to help you build your exposure management blueprint for the year ahead.
Part 2: Building An Exposure Management Playbook
The themes shaping exposure management are already changing how security teams operate. These 5 steps outline how security leaders are turning these shifts into repeatable, data-driven execution:
What’s Inside the Full 2026 Exposure Management Playbook?
Download the full playbook for:
- Real-World Scenarios: Practical examples of how teams unify data, prioritize exposures, uncover attack paths, streamline remediation, and report risk in business terms – so you can see each step in action.
- Step-by-Step Checklists: A clear, play-by-play guide to getting started with each step, including the key decisions and actions that help mature your program with confidence.
- Metrics That Matter: The key indicators leaders use to measure progress – from data accuracy and contextual scoring to remediation velocity, SLA performance, and executive-level risk trends.
Are you prepared for the 2026 Exposure Management Shift? Meet with a Brinqa Expert for a free 30-minute consultation to find out.