“Under construction.” That’s how Intruder CEO Chris Wallis described the AI conversation at RSA 2026. Based on what our team came back talking about, it’s hard to disagree.

Chris said multiple talks landed on that same phrase, but it wasn’t a slogan; it was more like a quiet admission. Users are figuring out how to deploy AI safely (and often, how they’ve already deployed it unsafely). Vendors are figuring out how agentic AI actually works for customers. Meanwhile, researchers are racing to break and secure the same systems simultaneously. As Chris put it, we’re all figuring this out together.

The Gap Between the Booth and the Buying Decision

Our team spent the week in analyst and media meetings, and that in-person collaboration reinforced the conference’s official theme of “The Power of Community.” By the end of the week, Treble’s Sofia Woo had noticed that vendors and customers aren’t always having the same conversation.

While AI agents are accelerating security teams' work, they are also lowering the barrier to entry for attackers. The real tension, however, is the gap between how vendors sell AI and how both buyers and the media evaluate it.

Across the board, the market has tuned out labels like AI-native, AI-embedded, and AI-powered. Those words barely register. Reporters and buyers alike kept coming back to a single requirement: proof. Where does this work today? Who is using it in production? What changed as a result?

Quantum Moves from Future-State to Near-Term

Alongside AI, the industry’s tone around post-quantum threats shifted noticeably. For years, this topic lived comfortably on the horizon.

At RSA, it sounded much closer. Organizations aren’t treating quantum as a distant “someday” problem anymore. It’s becoming a planning conversation. Expect that drumbeat to get louder.

What It Means for Cybersecurity Communications

The clearest takeaway from RSA is that the market is maturing faster than most vendors’ messaging. AI as a differentiator has become AI as table stakes.

Because reporters and analysts are asking harder, more practical questions, the standard PR playbook needs an upgrade. To move past the buzzwords and fluff, communications teams should prioritize:

  • Evidence-Based Storytelling: Move away from vision-casting. If you can’t point to a specific customer use case in production, wait until you can. 
  • Hard Data Over Adjectives: Replace words like “seamless” and “revolutionary” with hard metrics. How much time was saved? How many false positives were eliminated? 
  • The Human-in-the-Loop Narrative: With the rise of agentic AI, the most compelling stories are about how the tech specifically empowers the overstretched security practitioner.

“Under construction” may describe where the industry is right now, but the companies with answers grounded in customer outcomes are the ones winning the narrative. The opportunity is real for those willing to move past the buzzwords and show the work.