The CISO role is being rewritten. Not incrementally, but fundamentally.
For most of the last decade, security leadership was defined by containment: stop breaches, manage compliance, keep the lights on. Today, the organizations that are winning, not just surviving, are the ones where security is embedded into how the business operates, how AI is deployed, how data is governed. The role has expanded from protector to architect.
The people building that new model aren't the CISOs whose names appear on conference keynote slides. They're the deputies, directors, and senior managers working inside complex organizations right now, making decisions about AI tooling, building detection and response capabilities from scratch, and figuring out what AI-native security operations actually look like in practice. They don't have the title yet. But they're writing the playbook that the next generation of CISOs will inherit.
And nobody is recognizing them for it.
A gap in how the industry sees itself
Cybersecurity has no shortage of recognition programs. But most of them celebrate leaders who have already arrived: established CISOs with the title, the tenure, and the visibility to make shortlists. That's not a criticism; it's just what those programs are designed to do.
What's missing is a recognition layer for the people on the path. The operators who are three to five years from the seat but are, right now, doing some of the most consequential security work in their organizations. The ones who will define AI-native security leadership for the next decade, and who represent the next wave of decision-makers, buyers, advisors, and community voices in this industry.
That gap is what the AI 80 is built to close.
What the AI 80 is
Abnormal AI was built on a simple belief: that AI should do the heavy lifting in security so humans can focus on what AI can't replace: strategy, judgment, and leadership. The AI 80 is a natural extension of that belief. It's a program built to recognize the operators actively building that future.
The AI 80 is the first recognition program designed specifically for the generation before they arrive — practitioners on a path to CISO, not the ones who've already made it. Each cohort of 80 honorees is drawn from the operators, deputies, and emerging directors who are actively shaping AI-native security inside their organizations today, and who are on a credible path to CISO-level leadership over the next several years.
Nominations are open to the community. Anyone can put colleagues, peers, managers, or partners forward. The nomination process itself is designed to surface the people that practitioners trust and respect, not just the ones with the most LinkedIn followers.
What makes the selection meaningful is who makes the final call: not Abnormal, but an independent judging panel of leading VCs and AI-native CISOs who apply a published set of criteria to evaluate every nominee. The criteria, title bands, scope of AI-native work owned, demonstrated public point of view on the future of security, are specific by design. Prestige without rigor isn't prestige; it's just a list.
A program that compounds
Honorees receive more than a badge. Each member of the cohort gets a permanent profile in the AI 80 Hall of Fame microsite, shareable social assets to announce their recognition, and a direct line to Abnormal leaders throughout the year.. They're invited into the AI 80 Alumni Network — a peer community that connects cohort members for thought leadership, roundtables, and ongoing access to new research — and receive priority consideration for speaking at Abnormal-hosted events.
The first cohort will be announced publicly this fall.
Why now
The window to recognize this generation of leaders before they arrive is narrow. In three to five years, the deputies and directors in today's cohort will be in CISO seats. The community they build, the research they contribute, and the relationships they form along the way will shape how this industry thinks about AI-native security for a long time.
The AI 80 is a record of who was building AI-native security before it was obvious — and a community that gets more valuable as its members rise. The person you're thinking of right now probably belongs on it.
The AI 80 is a program from Abnormal AI. To learn more or nominate a rising security leader, visit abnormal.ai/lp/ai-80.
