Wiz, a cybersecurity startup founded in 2020, has rapidly evolved to meet the challenges posed by increasingly sophisticated AI-related cyberattacks. Wiz began by uncovering and remediating misconfigurations and vulnerabilities in public cloud environments. Now, it is evolving its capabilities to provide end-to-end security solutions built specifically for today’s digital landscape.
At a recent TechCrunch event held in San Francisco from October 27-29, 2025, Ami Luttwak, chief technologist at Wiz, discussed the critical role of artificial intelligence in transforming cybersecurity measures. His other main point was that the adoption of AI tools in enterprises is extremely nascent. Which is a shame, because only 1% of organizations are taking full advantage of them. Even with this slow uptake, Luttwak pointed out that attacks impacting thousands of enterprise customers are happening on a weekly basis.
Unlike other platforms, Wiz has consistently and proactively adjusted its offerings to stay a step ahead of the growing threat landscape. In April, the company introduced Wiz Defend. This product secures application runtimes by helping organizations detect and respond to hazards in real-time activities in the cloud. Shortly after, in September, they announced Wiz Code, which is designed to secure the entire software development lifecycle. This ground-breaking tool enables organizations to find and fix security weaknesses earlier in the development life cycle.
Luttwak stated, “From day one, you need to think about security and compliance.” He believes that organizations should integrate security protocols into their frameworks early on, including appointing a chief information security officer (CISO) regardless of team size. He asserted, “From day one, you need to have a CISO. Even if you have five people.” This forward-looking approach allows companies to develop a security-first culture as they scale.
As the landscape of cyber threats continue to grow, Luttwak explained the need to know key customer applications in order to improve cyber defense capabilities. “We need to understand why you’re building it … so I can build the security tool that no one has ever had before, the security tool that understands you,” he remarked. By customizing their security solutions to the unique needs of each client, Wiz’s goal is to deliver a higher level of effective and relevant protection.
The proliferation of new AI tools has shifted both the defensive and offensive tech that companies use to protect their assets vs. what attackers use to exploit them. Luttwak warned that attackers are now employing advanced methods, stating, “You can actually see the attacker is now using prompts to attack.” Organizations today must be ever-mindful of this shift, and continue to evolve their defenses in kind.
Wiz’s expansion into AI-driven solutions is part of a larger trend in the cybersecurity industry. He continued, stressing that all complex organizations face a perpetual trilemma of tradeoff between speed and security. “There’s a constant tradeoff today for companies choosing between being fast and being secure,” he explained. This predicament highlights the importance of organizations to place a greater emphasis on security, without compromising the ability to operate efficiently.
Wiz’s commitment to compliance With Wiz, compliance isn’t just a hollow slogan. “We were SOC2 compliant before we had code,” said Luttwak, illustrating the company’s dedication to establishing trust from its inception. He further pointed out that achieving compliance is significantly more challenging as an organization scales, noting, “Getting SOC2 compliance for five employees is much easier than for 500 employees.”
Cyber threats are more sophisticated than ever. Luttwak encourages entrepreneurs in the cybersecurity space to capitalize on the opportunities afforded us by this new era of AI. “Now’s the time for cybersecurity startups, like Wiz, to step into the field in the age of AI,” he asserted. As businesses or organizations are under increasing assault by bad actors, forward-thinking solutions driven by AI are essential.