Hack The Box (HTB), a global leader in AI-powered cybersecurity readiness, has released new findings from its AI-Augmented vs Human-Only Cybersecurity Performance Benchmark Report, revealing that artificial intelligence can significantly accelerate cybersecurity operations—particularly for highly skilled teams. However, the research also warns that overreliance on AI could disrupt the development pipeline for future cybersecurity talent.
The report incorporates performance data from the NeuroGrid Capture The Flag (CTF) competition, representing the largest known side-by-side benchmark comparing agentic AI and human-only cybersecurity teams across practical security challenges.
According to the findings, AI-enhanced teams achieved notable improvements in both speed and productivity. Key results include:
- Elite AI-augmented teams produced up to 4.1 times more output during the competition window, while overall teams improved output by 1.4x.
- Teams using AI improved their challenge solve rate by 70%, reaching 27% compared with 16% for top human-only teams within the same timeframe.
- Across all participants, AI-assisted teams demonstrated a 3.2x higher solve-rate ratio compared to teams operating without AI assistance.
The benchmark evaluated 1,078 teams, including 120 agentic AI teams and 958 human-only teams, tackling 36 cybersecurity challenges covering nine technical domains and four levels of difficulty during a three-day competition.
“AI can raise the bar of cybersecurity performance, but it does not eliminate the need for human expertise,” said Haris Pylarinos, Founder and CEO of Hack The Box. “Our findings show measurable productivity gains, but also predictable failure patterns. Security leaders must build and test human-in-the-loop workflows that are proven under pressure, and develop the AI and cybersecurity skills needed to unlock benefits safely as models evolve.”
AI’s Impact Varies Across Experience Levels
The report also highlights that AI does not benefit all cybersecurity professionals equally. Instead, its impact varies significantly depending on a team’s experience and skill level, underscoring the need for targeted workforce development strategies.
Key observations include:
• Early Career Productivity Illusion
AI can help less experienced teams close some competency gaps by enabling them to solve more challenges. However, the research found that lower-performing AI-augmented teams were 12.5% slower overall, often becoming stuck in inefficient loops when AI outputs were not carefully supervised.
• Mid-Career Performance Gains
Professionals with moderate experience saw the most substantial productivity improvements. In particular, medium-difficulty challenges produced a peak advantage of 3.89x, suggesting AI is especially effective in tasks where pattern recognition and contextual analysis can accelerate decision-making.
• Elite Team Speed Advantages
At the highest skill levels, the performance gap between AI-augmented and human-only teams narrowed. While the overall solve-rate advantage dropped from 3.2x to 1.7x within the top 5% of performers, elite teams leveraging AI still completed challenges 312% faster, indicating that AI primarily improves speed rather than skill development at this level.
“Routine and mid-level work is where enterprises will see immediate ROI,” said Gibb Witham, President of Hack The Box. “If organizations over-index on automating the tasks that build judgment, they risk trading long-term resilience for short-term efficiency. Agentic automation must be paired with deliberate human skill development. For enterprises, the competitive advantage will not come from AI adoption alone. It will come from training cybersecurity professionals to effectively orchestrate, validate, and govern AI-driven workflows and agents.”
Risks to the Cybersecurity Talent Pipeline
The research also identifies potential long-term risks tied to AI adoption. Medium-complexity cybersecurity tasks—where AI demonstrated its strongest impact with 3.89x performance improvements—are traditionally the environments where analysts build practical experience and decision-making capabilities.
These mid-tier challenges are critical for developing pattern recognition and technical judgment among cybersecurity professionals. If AI absorbs too much of this layer without structured training and exposure to increasingly complex problems, organizations could weaken the talent pipeline responsible for producing future senior cybersecurity experts.
Human-AI Collaboration Delivers the Best Outcomes
Overall, the findings reinforce the value of human-AI collaboration models in cybersecurity operations. AI-assisted teams raised baseline performance across participants, but the most difficult and novel challenges still required human reasoning, validation, and strategic judgment.
For executive leaders and CISOs, the report emphasizes that AI should be used to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them, particularly within high-stakes cybersecurity workflows.
Hack The Box will present additional insights from the research at RSAC 2026, scheduled for March 26, 2026, during the Village showcase.
Learn more about the AI-Augmented vs Human-Only Cybersecurity Performance Benchmark Report and CISO briefing here.
___
About Hack The Box
Hack The Box is the leading cyber readiness platform for the agentic era, battle-testing and upskilling both humans and AI agents to enhance organizational cyber resilience. Trusted by the Fortune 500, government agencies, and MSSPs, the platform delivers threat-informed learning paths consisting of real-world scenarios in gamified labs and live-fire simulations that build and validate offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. With a loyal community of more than 4 million members and 800+ enterprise customers, Hack The Box empowers teams and intelligent systems alike to strengthen cyber defenses and reduce breach risk effectively. For more information, visit hackthebox.com.
Join our LinkedIn group Information Security Community!
