Gartner’s $248.9B security forecast makes securing AI the only segment accelerating through 2030
Gartner published its 2Q26 information security forecast on June 25. Worldwide spending reaches $248.9 billion in 2026, up 12.7% in constant currency, and hits $372.6 billion by 2030. The total is not the story. For the first time, Gartner is counting what enterprises spend to secure AI itself. Securing AI flips the only accelerating growth curve in Gartner’s forecast. It captures more new dollars than any other category. By 2029 it is the largest line item in enterprise security.
I’ve tracked this forecast through every quarterly update, and the 2026 projection keeps climbing. In March, I had it at $244.2 billion. The 1Q26 update raised it to $246.2 billion. Now it stands at $248.9 billion. Two upward revisions in one quarter. The second one changes what the forecast measures, not just what it totals.
Where securing AI landed in Gartner’s forecast
Gartner folded securing AI spending into its Other Security Software segment, which now grows from $15.6 billion in 2025 to $37.6 billion by 2030. One accounting decision reshaped the entire forecast.
Start with the growth curve. The 1Q26 version of this segment decelerated from 7.3% growth in 2026 down to 3.6% by 2030. With securing AI counted, the same segment accelerates from 16.3% to 20.1% across the same window. I ran all 41 categories in Gartner’s detailed forecast file. This is the only one whose annual growth rate increases every single year through 2030.
Then the size ranking flips. Endpoint protection platforms hold the top category spot through 2028 at $27.3 billion. In 2029, the securing AI segment passes them, $31.2 billion versus $30.1 billion. By 2030, the gap will widen to $37.6 billion against $33.0 billion. The largest line item in enterprise security will be one that Gartner’s 1Q26 forecast had growing at 5.1% a year. The 2Q26 forecast has the same segment compounding at 18.5%.
The 10 fastest-growing categories through 2030
The table ranks the 41 detailed categories underneath Gartner’s 11 headline segments by 2025 to 2030 CAGR in constant currency. Market sizes are in current U.S. dollars.
| # | Category (Parent Segment) | 2025 ($B) | 2030 ($B) | CAGR | New $ ($B) |
| 1 | Cloud Security Posture Management | $4.7B | $16.1B | 27.6% | $+11.5B |
| 2 | Cloud Access Security Brokers | $2.2B | $6.6B | 24.3% | $+4.4B |
| 3 | Cloud Workload Protection Platforms | $5.9B | $15.7B | 21.0% | $+9.8B |
| 4 | Zero Trust Network Access | $2.4B | $6.4B | 20.9% | $+4.0B |
| 5 | Threat Intelligence | $2.5B | $6.1B | 19.0% | $+3.6B |
| 6 | Consent and Preference Management | $0.8B | $2.0B | 18.6% | $+1.2B |
| 7 | Other Security Software (incl. securing AI) | $15.6B | $37.6B | 18.5% | $+21.9B |
| 8 | Network Detection and Response | $2.2B | $4.1B | 12.4% | $+1.9B |
| 9 | Subject Rights Request Automation | $1.3B | $2.3B | 12.3% | $+1.1B |
| 10 | Vulnerability Assessment | $3.5B | $6.4B | 12.0% | $+2.8B |
| Total information security market | $218.2B | $372.6B | 10.7% | $154.4B |
Source: Gartner, Forecast: Information Security, Worldwide, 2024–2030, 2Q26 (G00855892, June 25, 2026). CAGR is computed from constant-currency values. Dollar figures in current U.S. dollars.
Seven categories compound at 18.5% or better. The whole market runs at 10.7%. Then the ranking falls off a cliff to 12.4%. Cloud security posture management leads everything at 27.6%, growing from $4.7 billion to $16.1 billion. The three cloud security categories together triple to $38.4 billion by 2030, extending the run I flagged when cloud security led the 4Q25 update at 28.8%. Zero trust network access grows 2.65x to $6.4 billion while the category it replaces, network access control, falls 61% to $382 million. That is a migration, not a decline. NAC dollars are showing up in ZTNA line items instead.
I update this Top 10 ranking every quarter as Gartner releases new forecast data. Get the next one in your inbox.
Where the next $154 billion lands
The market adds $154.4 billion in new annual spending between 2025 and 2030. Six categories capture just under half of it. The securing AI segment takes $21.9 billion, more than any other line. Endpoint protection adds $14.6 billion. CSPM adds $11.5 billion. Firewall equipment, the legacy line everyone keeps writing off, adds $9.9 billion, the fourth most in the entire forecast. The other 35 categories fight over what remains.
The bottom of the table tells the same story from the other direction. Consumer security software crawls at 3.5%. User authentication grows 3.1% a year, the slowest line in identity, while IDPS shrinks 8.3% and NAC contracts 17.7% annually. The standalone products that anchored enterprise security budgets a decade ago are being folded into the platforms that grew up around them, and the consolidation story vendors have pitched for years is now visible in Gartner’s own numbers.
In my 1Q26 breakdown of the Top 10 fastest growers, the securing AI segment did not exist as a distinct growth driver. One quarter later, it leads every category in new dollars. That is how fast the forecast structure moved.
What these numbers add up to
Gartner now expects more than half of the overall security market to include AI by 2030. This update prices the other side of that trade for the first time. In March, I wrote that enterprises were spending 17x more on AI tools than on securing AI itself. The catch-up spend now has its own line in the forecast, and it is the only number in the entire table that keeps accelerating.
Gartner raised its 2030 total outlook by $19.5 billion. The securing AI segment accounts for $20.3 billion of that revision. Every other segment combined has a net cut of roughly $780 million. The money is moving, and it is moving in one direction.
Gartner’s 3Q26 forecast update lands in the fall, and I’ll break down whether the securing AI acceleration holds or whether Gartner revises the trajectory once early enterprise adoption data comes in. That update will also be the first to reflect a full year of post-inclusion spending data.
