Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike (CrowdStrike) forecast security demand will rise further as AI-driven threats spread. After results that beat market expectations and a raised full-year guidance, the company said AI is boosting corporate security demand by strengthening both defence and attack capabilities.

On June 4, CNBC reported that CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz (조지 커츠) said in an interview after the earnings release that companies are growing more wary of AI-based cyber threats. He said the trend will lead to meaningful revenue growth over the next several quarters.

During the quarterly earnings release, investors also asked why AI security demand did not show up as quickly as expected. Some focused on why the first-quarter results did not show an immediate impact despite market attention on “Mithos”, an AI security threat scenario that has recently drawn notice.

Kurtz said expectations were ahead of timing. “Mithos emerged in mid-April and our fiscal quarter ended in late April,” he said. “We are not a company that sells products in a box. We provide enterprise software, so it takes time for contracts to be signed and for deployment and operation to follow,” he said.

Market reaction after the results was somewhat mixed. CrowdStrike posted results above market forecasts and raised its full-year guidance, but the stock fell about 4 percent in after-hours trading. That was interpreted as investors trying to see how quickly expanding AI security demand will be reflected in near-term results.

The company said focus should be on improved full-year outlook rather than short-term results. CrowdStrike raised its forecast for full-year net new annual recurring revenue by more than $50 million. ARR is a key metric used by subscription software companies to gauge future revenue.

“We clearly see the opportunity in the market, and that is why we were able to raise the outlook,” Kurtz said. “Customers ultimately come to CrowdStrike,” he said.

Indicators of demand tied to AI security are also rising quickly. The company said its second-quarter sales pipeline for its AI Detection and Response platform has already exceeded $50 million. That is up about 250 percent from the previous quarter.

Kurtz said security demand is also rising as companies introduce AI across their organisations. “Customers want to use more AI,” he said. “But to use more AI, you need stronger security,” he said. That view runs counter to some forecasts that the spread of AI will weaken the role of security companies.

Kurtz said AI is improving defence capabilities while also boosting attackers’ capabilities. “AI is creating more sophisticated attackers,” he said. “Ultimately, that becomes a powerful growth driver for security companies like CrowdStrike,” he said.

The industry is watching the possibility that broader AI adoption could drive a structure in which security budgets rise as well. With enterprise security software often taking significant time from adoption decisions to actual operation, concerns about heightened AI threats are expected to be reflected in results over the next several quarters.

That is why some assessments say the key point of this earnings release was not how much AI security demand was immediately reflected in revenue, but that CrowdStrike raised its growth outlook on that basis.