Demand for AI-native security chiefs jumps 256%, Christian & Timbers research finds
Every company that moved to replace a CISO in the first seven months of 2026 named agentic AI expertise as the top requirement, up from fewer than half a year earlier
Demand for AI-native chief information security officers and chief security officers rose 256% in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, according to research from executive search firm Christian & Timbers.
Overall CISO and CSO replacement activity rose 45%, from 22 companies in January through July 2025 to 32 in the same span of 2026, out of roughly 100 companies Christian & Timbers advised on security leadership this year. The more significant shift was in what those companies asked for. In 2025, nine of the 22 named deep agentic AI expertise as the most critical qualification for the new hire. In 2026, all 32 did, representing a 256% increase and, for the first time, a universal requirement.
“A candidate could walk into a final round twelve months ago with a strong traditional security record and some AI exposure on their résumé, and today that same background gets filtered out before the first conversation,” said Jeff Christian, founder of Christian & Timbers. “The role moved so fast that most sitting CISOs are still building the case they were hired to build two years ago, while the board in the room with them is already asking about agent identity and machine-speed incident response.”
