AI-Era Threats Spread Beyond Email Into SaaS, Collaboration Apps, and AI Assistants

Proofpoint's January 2026 survey of 1,453 security professionals found that 42% of organizations experienced AI-related incidents, with threats reported across email (67%), SaaS/cloud apps (57%), AI assistants/agents (53%), and collaboration tools and file sharing (49%). Respondents cited limited preparedness for investigating AI/agent incidents, difficulty correlating threats across channels, and tool sprawl; many plan to expand AI protections and move toward unified collaboration security in the next 12 months.