Digital Security and ROI on the Intelligent Web
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As AI becomes deeply embedded in business outcomes, leaders must look beyond mere prompt visibility and toward a more complete picture of what it means to be AI-ready.
Understanding how AI is changing the very fabric of the internet can help leaders invest in the right tools while maintaining the security and profitability of their tech stack. Recently, I joined Cloudflare Field CTO Daniel Kent in a webinar to discuss how organizations can implement AI safely while still gaining the ROI and force acceleration these tools promise. Read on to learn more, and check out the webinar for a deep discussion on AI and security in the age of the intelligent web.
The intelligent web experience
For over two decades, websites were built exclusively for human use. Today, we are seeing a massive leap in machine-to-machine interactions, and businesses are grappling with a web where properties must serve two distinct audiences:
- The human: Seeking experience, brand connection, and decisive answers.
- The agent: Seeking raw data, structured information, and API-like interactions to feed generative answer engines.
Visibility is moving away from the classic gateway model of search engines toward an "answer engine" model. According to McKinsey’s AI Discovery survey, half of consumers already seek out AI-powered search engines like Perplexity, Gemini, and ChatGPT to guide their buying decisions.
For any business with an online presence, preparing for the future means investing in tools to ensure your stack can serve both audiences without compromising security.
From simple chatbots to agent-powered decision making
As we settle into the agentic era, leaders are moving beyond mere experimentation and surface-level investments, focusing on integrating agents with existing systems to execute tasks faster. Gartner projects that by the end of this year, 40% of enterprise applications will include task-specific AI agents.
AI readiness goes much further than simple prompt visibility or chatbot responses. It involves a system in which agents can make decisions, write code on the fly, analyze behavioral patterns, and interact with existing workflows or other agents to solve problems. While generative AI systems, like ChatGPT, create content based on speech pattern prediction, agents can take proactive, reasoned actions on behalf of their managers.
“Many people think of AI as a chatbot. It's much more than that. AI is integrating into existing applications and workflows,” said Cloudflare Field CTO Daniel Kent in our recent webinar. “It's not just to provide a prompt in response. We’re starting to see how AI can make applications more effective and benefit the way you deal with your customers.”
Evolving web security to defend against AI threats
With the rise of machine-driven interactions, security is about managing the sheer volume and sophistication of automated traffic, as AI allows bad actors to scale attacks with unprecedented speed. Total Assure reports that AI-assisted attacks increased by 72% from 2024 to 2025.
To stay resilient, organizations must evolve their security strategies, focusing on:
- Traffic analysis and management: Identify anomalies in how agents and humans interact with your site, preferably by eliminating threats at the network edge.
- Implementing modern best practices: Despite the risks, only 25% to 32% of organizations have invested in modern cybersecurity practices like identity management, federated security, or zero trust architecture in the past year, according to Deloitte.
- Unified security platforms: Palo Alto Networks predicts a shift toward unifying security strategies on a single platform instead of relying on multiple vendors for ad hoc security measures.
ROI is found in experimentation and choosing the right partners
While exciting, AI isn’t yet providing the ROI many early adopters had imagined. A study from MIT found that despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment, only 5% of organizations report any measurable returns. This may come down to leaders investing in tools that enhance individual productivity instead of implementing unique systems for structural change.
The same MIT study also found that companies implementing AI tools with the help of external experts are seeing twice the success rate of those building new systems internally. So, it seems investing in quality partnerships may be the key to unlocking real revenue growth with AI.
I think another shift we all have to make is thinking of AI as an execution accelerator. With AI tools and LLMs, we’re moving into a world where humans are in charge of orchestration, not execution.
We can describe the outcomes we want and the problems we’re trying to solve. Then, as results come back, we can inspect and adapt our instructions. It’s a shift in expectations and behavior that will take some adjustment, but it allows us to think more broadly about problems and use AI to accelerate time-to-value.
In the webinar, I underscored one major factor that can lead to better AI use: leaders must create a culture that celebrates experimentation, testing, and learning. Fear of failure and fear of losing investment in the wrong tools make it impossible to harness the true power of AI.
It’s time to change how we measure success. We need to reframe simple measurements like “how many articles did you publish?” or “how many lines of code did you return?” and instead focus on “what outcome were we able to achieve?”
How WP Engine supports security on the intelligent web
A managed environment can help businesses automate complex web security measures behind the scenes, ensuring the tech stack is resilient against heavy agentic traffic or malicious bots. WP Engine’s Managed Platform provides a secure foundation for business websites built on WordPress®, along with additional tools like Global Edge Security to further harden security.
Through partnerships with industry leaders like Cloudflare, WP Engine provides enterprise-grade protection, so our customers can focus on building impactful digital experiences, not just managing new and changing threats.
Learn more about how organizations can stay resilient, secure, and competitive amid the rapid changes brought about by AI in Future-Proof Your Digital Stack: Security in the Era of AI-Driven Threats.