Exclusive interview with Kaspersky’s Sam Yan: AI-powered defense turns hackers’ plans upside down

Your inbox could be under attack right now, and you might not even know it. That’s the warning from Sam Yan, Head of Sales for Asia Emerging Countries at Kaspersky, who shared in an exclusive interview how the company’s new platform, Kaspersky Next, is using AI to predict threats before they fully materialize.

Yan says features like KIRA AI and DLL hijacking detection rely on behavioral modeling and anomaly recognition to alert analysts only to genuinely suspicious activity, aiming to prevent cyberattacks without overwhelming teams with false alarms.

For businesses and everyday workers, this isn’t just tech talk. Cybercriminals are moving faster than ever, exploiting stolen credentials, phishing, and lateral network breaches in hours instead of days.

IBM’s 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index highlighted a surge in account compromises and phishing attacks, showing why signature-based detection alone no longer works. Kaspersky Next’s predictive AI approach is designed to catch emerging attack patterns before they impact your data, money, or operations.

Yan explains that the platform also tackles alert fatigue, a common problem in cybersecurity. By consolidating endpoint protection (EPP), detection and response (EDR), extended detection (XDR), and security information and event management (SIEM) into a single console through Kaspersky’s Open Single Management Platform, analysts spend less time piecing together alerts and more time acting on confirmed threats.

AI assistance reshapes decision-making, giving humans faster, more complete context while keeping the final call in their hands.

Real-world deployments show that multi-vendor environments, where multiple security solutions operate together, can create conflicting automated responses. Kaspersky Next coordinates actions with centralized orchestration and policy-based controls, reducing risk and confusion.

Yan emphasizes that technology alone isn’t enough—clear ownership of automated actions, well-defined escalation paths, and close collaboration with clients from day one are critical to running an effective SOC.

Even with AI, blind spots can form if certain threats get prioritized over others. Kaspersky Next combines signature detection, behavioral analysis, and anomaly modeling to ensure comprehensive coverage.

Yan points out that AI augments analyst instincts rather than replaces them, so even attacks without formal signatures are still caught by an experienced human eye.

Resource efficiency is another advantage. Consolidating multiple SOC tools into one console reduces hardware and operational requirements. According to Kaspersky, EDR Expert users see up to 30% lower resource use, while XDR Expert deployments cut it by up to 60%. That means faster response times, real-time threat visibility, and leaner infrastructure without compromising security.

For individuals and companies, this can prevent stolen funds, ransomware lockouts, or leaks of sensitive data. Analysts can act immediately on confirmed threats instead of chasing false positives, a crucial improvement as attackers compress their response windows. Cybersecurity research from 2022 to 2026 shows lateral movement and breakout times dropping significantly, making predictive, AI-assisted defense essential.

Kaspersky Next’s predictive AI is part of a wider shift in enterprise cybersecurity. As attackers accelerate, combining AI, behavioral analytics, and human judgment is becoming the standard way to stay ahead. Companies deploying these solutions can anticipate risks, reduce fatigue among analysts, and maintain operations even under constant threat.

The bottom line: every unblocked attack costs money, time, and trust. With AI-augmented SOCs like Kaspersky Next, organizations can predict, act, and stay ahead of fast-moving cybercriminals.

For anyone who relies on digital systems daily, that’s a frontline defense you can’t afford to ignore.