We’re (Nearly) All vCISOs Now
Research from Cynomi suggests a huge jump in MSPs with vCISO services, along with huge demand for vCISO services among SMBs.
RMM vendors aren’t the only ones likely to see borders erode between their products and LLMs someday. Cynomi (a maker of AI-driven vCISO software you’ve read about here once or twice) has partners blurring those lines now, in fact.
“Some of them, especially the larger ones, ask us, ‘can I get this and this from your platform? I want to train ChatGPT or whatever,’” says Rotem Shemesh (pictured), the vendor’s VP of marketing.
Queries like that aren’t all that surprising, actually, given that 81% of the MSPs and MSSPs surveyed by Cynomi for its recently published State of the Virtual CISO 2025 report either use AI to automate security today or will by the end of the year. Another 15% say they’ll follow suit in 2026, leaving just 4% with no plans whatsoever.
Shemesh sees a close correlation between all that AI adoption and another striking figure in Cynomi’s study: 67% of MSPs and MSSPs say they offer vCISO services at present, up from just 21% last year. Fully 77% of providers without a vCISO service, moreover, anticipate adding one by 2026.
“Suddenly, with AI and automation technology, the barriers for starting a vCISO practice are becoming much lower and much less significant,” Shemesh says.
Further survey data reveals why so many people are capitalizing on those lower entry barriers. SMBs, who want advanced security services of all kinds in big numbers, want vCISO services most of all:
“Most of the SMBs will not know to say, ‘I’m looking for a virtual CISO.’ They don’t even know what a CISO is,” Shemesh observes. They just know they’re in danger, need protection, have serious cyber insurance compliance burdens, and want an expert to manage the whole mess for them.
“Service providers see this,” Shemesh says, and are jumping into the market in response to that demand.
Of course, even Cynomi isn’t convinced that everyone who says they’re a vCISO really is. Doing the job properly takes business savvy and c-suite communication skills many MSPs lack. The company anticipates a lot of interest in AI-powered vCISO software just the same.
As do others, apparently. Cynomi closed a $37 million Series B funding round three months ago.