If trust is the first step toward successful AI adoption, per Omnissa, security is a close second.
Or rather, it should be, but all too often isn’t, according to Ryan Grant (pictured), country manager for the U.S. and Canada at ESET North America. Per the company’s 2026 SMB Cyber Readiness Index, he notes, few SMBs using AI are protecting themselves effectively from the technology’s many (often uninsurable) risks.
“The feedback was very clear that people are just using whatever tools they can get access to,” Grant says. “It’s an unmanaged environment.”
Actually, the picture painted by that study is even uglier than that. Only 11% of SMBs have a complete set of what ESET considers minimal safeguards for securing anything, let alone AI. The new solution portfolio ESET unveiled last week is designed to raise that number by giving the MSPs most SMBs rely on a bundled collection of solutions and services to deploy.
“Think of it as cybersecurity as a service,” Grant says. “It’s all in one.”
That includes the antivirus, vulnerability scanning, patch management, and other solutions long included in the ESET PROTECT platform, plus the AI-era additions the company introduced at the Black Hat conference two months ago, one of which secures end user interaction with chatbots in web browsers.
“What are they actually prompting AI with? Are they uploading any kind of confidential information? Are they downloading any potential scripts?” Grant says.
A second newly added component automatically blocks suspicious or dangerous agent behavior, while a third inspects agentic skills for malicious content. A free version of that tool available on ESET’s website has already scanned some 900,000 files.
“25,000 came back suspicious and 3,000 were malicious,” Grant says.
Buyers can now choose among three ESET PROTECT tiers. The Core edition offers comprehensive baseline defenses for AI and beyond to organizations with five or more seats. The Premium edition adds autonomous 24/7 MDR protection for companies with 10 seats and above. The Ultimate edition includes live contact with ESET’s threat hunting team along with threat analysis and remediation support. Optional add-ons for security awareness training, MDR onboarding assistance, and cyber warranty coverage are available as well.
The goal across all three tiers, according to Grant, is to strengthen SMB security by helping MSPs acquire SMB security tools more easily. “It’s just simple,” he says, and for an equally simple reason.
“MSPs constantly tell us we’re overwhelmed.”
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When not writing this newsletter, I’m chief analyst at Channel Mastered, a consultancy that helps vendors build, grow, and optimize thriving MSP channels. Wrestling with a channel challenge of your own? Contact me here.
