For decades, VPN was the default answer to remote access security – reliable, familiar, and deeply embedded in enterprise architecture. That era is ending. AI has accelerated attack timelines from weeks to minutes, automated credential theft at industrial scale, and given adversaries a speed advantage that human-led defense cannot match. VPN was built for a world where defenders had time to patch, investigate, and respond. That world no longer exists.
Our survey of 822 IT and cybersecurity professionals surfaces a persistent gap: organizations recognize VPN risk clearly, but the perimeter-based access architecture they still depend on cannot contain AI-driven threats that now move in minutes. The remaining question is how fast they replace it.
