Leading incident responders and defenders shared firsthand lessons from recent attacks at the Incident Response Forum 2026, highlighting how adversaries are using AI to accelerate exploits and evolve ransomware while defenders struggle to keep pace. They cautioned that defenders face a difficult year as vulnerabilities surge faster than teams can keep pace with, even amid accelerating innovation in security tools such as Anthropic’s Claude Security platform. This article explored the AI threat landscape and offered practical cyber defense and incident response priorities, drawing on commentary from Cooley, Davis Wright Tremaine, FTI Consulting, Kirkland, Morgan Lewis, MOXFIVE, Orrick and Palo Alto Networks.