Experts: AI has rewritten the economics of red teaming

Offensive security practitioners say AI has radically cut the cost and time of attacks over the past 18 months: a small team with frontier models now outperforms much larger traditional operations from two years ago. A deconfliction report from 9–10 months of C2 logs can be generated in under 20 minutes, while reconnaissance and infrastructure setup shrank from weeks to minutes.

• A small AI-equipped team now outperforms larger traditional operations from two years ago
• Reports from 9–10 months of C2 logs are generated in under 20 minutes
• Reconnaissance and infrastructure setup shrank from weeks to minutes
• Judgment and validating AI output matter more than the tools themselves