Palo Alto Networks, Accenture Collaborate To Secure Enterprise Generative AI Adoption

Cybersecurity provider Palo Alto Networks and professional services company Accenture Plc. expanded their collaboration with new offerings. These offerings will combine Palo Alto Networks' Precision AI technology with Accenture's secure generative AI services to help organisations securely adopt AI.

The use of gen AI is accelerating rapidly, presenting both opportunities for transformation and challenges for organisations with the rise in AI-generated cyberattacks. In a recent survey from Accenture, 97% of organisations said they expect gen AI to be transformative, but only 31% have invested significantly, with organisations struggling to scale AI effectively while mitigating risks.

Palo Alto Networks and Accenture will work together to help solve such challenges for enterprises, enabling the design, deployment and use of AI while also improving cybersecurity outcomes.

"AI is transformational to every aspect of enterprise business when used in the right way. With Accenture, we're uniting Precision AI-powered solutions and services expertise, helping our joint customers use the best of AI to create value for their business today and in the future—with better real-time security outcomes," said Nikesh Arora, chairman and chief executive at Palo Alto Networks. 

Palo Alto Networks' Secure AI by Design prioritises the integrity of AI security frameworks, improves security compliance and minimises data exposure, the company said. Accenture will offer AI diagnostic services powered by Prisma Cloud AI Security Posture Management and AI Access Security to secure organisations' AI environments.

The combined offering will work to secure the data/AI framework lifecycle, from ingesting, storing and processing data to model training and deployment, leading to data analysis and visualisation. Palo Alto Networks' AI cybersecurity products will offer advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities. Combined with Accenture's services capabilities, the offering can help enterprises identify and block AI-generated attacks, safeguard data with policy controls across applications and users, and address AI-specific threats.

Palo Alto Networks will collaborate with Accenture Security as a design partner to develop and customise AI Runtime Security to meet specific client needs and better protect AI-powered business applications, models and enterprise data from AI-specific and foundational cyberattacks.

The companies also aim to foster ethical and responsible AI adoption by establishing a foundation for secure, responsible practices throughout an organisation.

Karthik Narain, group chief executive, technology, Accenture, said, "Generative AI is being adopted by companies across industries as the #1 lever for reinvention. It is also a moment of reinvention for cybersecurity—creating new risks, but also providing new tools."