July 16th marks Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day, a relatively new observance established in May 2021 by A.I. Heart LLC. The day is dedicated to recognizing the myriad positive contributions of AI technology to humanity and fostering greater awareness of its current and future applications.
For cybersecurity professionals, this year's observance carries more weight than ever as AI becomes increasingly intertwined with both threats and defenses.
The history of AI, as highlighted by National Today, stretches back further than many realize. From philosophers and mathematicians exploring mechanical reasoning in the early 1900s, to Alan Turing's foundational ideas on computation, and the formal design of artificial neurons in 1943 by McCulloch and Pitts, the seeds of AI were planted long ago. The term "Artificial Intelligence" itself was coined and the field of AI research officially born at a Dartmouth College workshop in 1956. Fast forward to 2015, and more than 2,700 software projects within Google alone were integrating some form of AI.
Today, AI's ubiquitous presence means it's influencing nearly every sector globally, from big data and robotics to the Internet of Things. In cybersecurity, AI is a double-edged sword. It powers advanced threat detection, anomaly analysis, automated incident response, and sophisticated predictive analytics, giving defenders unprecedented capabilities. However, it also equips malicious actors with tools for highly-effective phishing, sophisticated malware generation, and automated attack campaigns.
This dual nature makes AI Appreciation Day particularly poignant for security professionals. It's a moment to appreciate the advancements AI brings to our defensive toolkit, helping us to analyze vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and respond at machine speed. Yet, it's also a stark reminder of the continuous arms race we're in. As AI evolves, so too do the sophistication and scale of cyber threats.
This year, perhaps more than ever, AI Appreciation Day serves as a call to action for the cybersecurity community: to deepen our understanding of AI, to responsibly integrate it into our defenses, and to collaborate on ethical guidelines that ensure this powerful technology benefits humanity, rather than empowering its adversaries.
"AI Appreciation Day is a great reminder of how far technology has come and how much stronger we are when human insight and machine intelligence work together," said John DiLullo, CEO at Deepwatch. "In cybersecurity, that partnership is essential. Threats don't take breaks, and neither do the teams working to stop them. AI helps by spotting patterns, flagging suspicious activity, and speeding up response times. But it's the people like analysts, engineers, and threat hunters who bring the experience and judgment needed to make the right call or provide detailed insights on what is important.
"It's not about choosing between humans or AI; it's about combining the best of both. AI handles the scale and speed; humans bring the insight and strategy. Today, we’re not just appreciating AI—we’re celebrating the partnership between people and technology that keeps organizations secure every day."
Here's what other cybersecurity vendor experts have to say about AI Appreciation Day.
Rom Carmel, Co-founder and CEO of Apono:
"Unlike static on-prem environments, cloud infrastructure is distributed and dynamic, requiring real-time capabilities to manage access securely and efficiently. As organizations scale and adopt multi-cloud architectures, traditional access controls often fall short, lacking the agility and context awareness needed to keep pace.
"Artificial intelligence plays a critical role in modern access management by enabling just-in-time, least privilege access decisions based on real-time context such as user behavior, access history, and risk signals. This intelligent automation reduces manual overhead, strengthens compliance, and minimizes the attack surface while supporting operational speed and flexibility.
"Modern access management demands smarter, more adaptive solutions to keep organizations secure, compliant, and agile in today's complex digital landscape."
Nick Heddy, President and Chief Commerce Officer at Pax8:
"AI has been transformative for Pax8's mission to empower small and medium-sized businesses through our partner community leveraging our cloud commerce Marketplace. We've integrated AI-powered tools throughout our Marketplace that help managed service providers (MSPs) discover new opportunities, design tailored technology solutions, and engage more effectively with their customers. Our AI-driven technology is redefining how partners manage their business operations, making enterprise-level capabilities accessible to SMBs that previously couldn't afford them.
"As we look to the end of 2025 and beyond, AI continues to be central to our vision of democratizing technology access. Our recent research into 'The Agentic Inflection Point' highlights how agentic labor and AI-powered automation are transforming SMB operations, as 54% of midsize enterprises have already deployed AI, and 83% of high-growth SMBs are actively experimenting with it. AI Appreciation Day is a perfect opportunity to recognize how this technology is not just changing how we work, but fundamentally improving how small businesses can compete and thrive in today's digital economy."
Eric Schwake, Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at Salt Security:
"AI Appreciation Day presents a timely opportunity to consider AI's immense potential, particularly the transformative role of Agentic AI. These autonomous agents are taking on complex tasks, making decisions, and engaging with core systems mainly through APIs, potentially gaining unfettered access to sensitive data. However, this powerful integration also introduces a significant security blind spot. It is crucial to maintain full visibility and robust governance over how these AI agents communicate through the API layer, including the use of emerging Model Context Protocols (MCPs). Doing so is essential to fully realize AI's benefits safely and to prevent risks such as data leaks or fraud."
Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail:
"AI isn't coming, it's already here. And while most of us see the good, scammers see the opportunity. We're now dealing with voice cloning that sounds uncannily real, phishing emails and texts tailored using live data, and chatbots that patiently extract personal info as if they were customer support.
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"What makes this wave different is how personal and convincing it has become. We've moved from broad robocalls and generic spam to hyper-targeted fraud that sounds like your boss, your bank, or even your closest friend. AI is turning what used to be clumsy scams into believable, highly customized attacks that can catch anyone off guard.
"AI Appreciation Day is a good reminder that the same technology driving business transformation is also transforming fraud. It's no longer enough to block obvious spam. Protecting consumers now means anticipating how these tools will be misused next, and building defenses that adapt just as fast. At YouMail, we see this every day, and it's why we're focused on staying one step ahead in a world where even the scams sound real."
Satish Swargam, Principal Security Consultant at Black Duck:
"As organizations embrace AI in enhancing their products and services, AI governance is taking shape and evolving into a practice that will be woven into the secure software development lifecycle. There is a greater and unforeseen impact to human life as AI is widely adopted. AI is a double-edged sword and will impact our day-to-day activities both positively and negatively. As AI is leveraged in making decisions—whether it is simple like where to shop or critical like clinical decisions that impacts patient safety—it is important to ensure that AI is used ethically, and that it is fair, transparent, accountable, protects privacy, and is secure, safe and reliable.
"To instill trust and confidence in the use of AI, there needs to be a structured governance of AI such as an AI BOM (Bill of Materials) and a criterion established to score the indeterministic output from AI. The fear of using AI can only be addressed if the output from AI can be trusted. And this trust can be built only with effective governance of AI.
"With a fast paced agile development, organizations should be concerned about using AI with regard to IP & licensing risks, data privacy and leakage and a false sense of security and over-reliance. These concerns can be addressed with AI governance and true scale application security."
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