Full Segment Notes
At RSAC 2026, Mike Shema speaks with Ankur Shah, CEO of Straiker.ai and a finalist for SC Awards Security Executive of the Year. Shah shares his leadership approach and perspective on today’s evolving cybersecurity landscape.The SC Awards recognize leaders driving real-world impact across the industry.Segment Resources:https://www.straiker.ai/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankur-shah-aisec/This segment is sponsored by Straiker.ai. Visit https://securityweekly.com/straikerrsac to learn more about them!
Key Moments
- 0:00 - Welcome to SC Awards 2026 Interview
- 0:20 - Meet Striker CEO & Security Executive of the Year
- 0:47 - Cybersecurity Leadership & Community Impact
- 01:23 - The AI Shift vs Cloud, Mobile & Internet
- 01:57 - Rise of Agentic AI in Enterprises
- 02:25 - Agents Building Agents Explained
- 02:58 - Citizen Developers & AI Agent Platforms
- 03:55 - Expanding Attack Surface with AI Agents
- 04:14 - Why Traditional Security Controls Fail
- 04:44 - Building AI-Native Security Stacks
- 05:09 - Using AI to Secure AI (Agent vs Agent)
- 05:31 - AI as a Force Multiplier for Professionals
- 06:29 - Future of Work in the AI Era
- 06:43 - How Leadership Is Changing with AI
- 07:28 - Flat Organizations & Fewer Middle Managers
- 07:49 - Industry Uncertainty & Rapid AI Evolution
- 08:42 - Building with AI: Practical Advice
- 08:50 - Automating Daily Work with AI Agents
- 09:30 - Growth Strategy & Scaling Striker
- 10:44 - Hiring Challenges in the AI Era
- 11:00 - Advice for Students & AI-Native Talent
- 11:50 - Securing Agent Ecosystems & Permissions
- 12:12 - Striker as the AI Security Control Plane
- 12:53 - Final Thoughts & Closing
Guest
Ankur Shah is a cybersecurity leader and entrepreneur with a proven track record of building and scaling innovative security solutions. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Straiker, he is focused on revolutionizing AI-driven security technologies. Previously, Ankur served as SVP & GM of Prisma Cloud at Palo Alto Networks, where he grew the cloud security (CNAPP) platform from a single module to an industry-leading Code To Cloud CNAPP Platform. He played a pivotal role in expanding its customer base and increasing revenue by 50x in 5 years. Before that, he led product development at RedLock, CipherCloud, and Symantec, driving advancements in cloud security, DLP, and AI-powered threat detection.
