AI is now central to threat detection and cybersecurity operations in India.
Women remain underrepresented, forming only 22% of the global cybersecurity workforce.
Strong governance, diverse leadership and data-driven strategies ensure ethical AI deployment.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the cybersecurity landscape as organisations face increasing digital threats and a widening talent gap. Women still constitute roughly 22% of the global cybersecurity workforce, according to the ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2024–2025, underscoring the ongoing gender disparity in a field essential to digital resilience. In the context of how important AI-driven threat detection, and AI-driven governance frameworks are becoming, building stronger talent pipelines and leadership diversity is a priority in the domain.
In an exclusive interaction with Outlook Business, Sneha Katkar, Head of Product Strategy at Quick Heal Technologies, talked about the growing role of AI in protecting digital ecosystems, gender dynamics in cybersecurity and her experience as a leader. Edited excerpts:
2 March 2026
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How has your journey been as a woman leader navigating biases in AI-driven cybersecurity?
My journey has been one of learning, unlearning and staying grounded in purpose. When I stepped into this space, technology leadership was a room where women had to work twice as hard to be heard half as loudly. I encountered assumptions about my role, quiet biases and structural gaps that made navigating senior leadership complex.
However, I chose to let outcomes speak louder than objections. I built teams that valued diverse perspectives and focused relentlessly on excellence. The bias doesn't disappear overnight; you learn to move through it with conviction. And in doing so, you quietly make the path a little wider for the next woman who walks in.
What inspired your leadership in technology and what advice do you have for women entering AI and cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity, AI and next-gen tech are not “future” careers—they are power seats shaping the future. Don’t wait to feel 100% ready. Build depth, stay curious and master fundamentals, take hard assignments and speak up in rooms that intimidate you.
Technology rewards competence, not permission and remember, resilience and continuous learning are your real competitive advantage.
How should Indian companies embed AI into cybersecurity for efficiency and resilience?
AI is no longer a future possibility in cybersecurity. It has grown to become an operational imperative today. Indian companies must move beyond treating AI as a bolt-on solution and instead embed it into the core of their security architecture - from real-time threat detection and behavioural analytics to predictive incident response - something that we, at Quick Heal Technologies Limited, are helping them achieve through our Seqrite range of enterprise security products.
The key to efficiency and scalability lies in building AI on clean, contextual data, trained on India-specific threat landscapes. Resilience comes when AI enhances human judgment rather than replacing it. Integrating AI is not a technology project but a cultural and strategic transformation that must have leadership commitment at its foundation.
What steps should Indian companies take for ethical AI governance and responsible risk management?
As AI takes on greater autonomy in cybersecurity, governance cannot be an afterthought. Indian organisations must establish clear AI ethics frameworks that define accountability, transparency and auditability for every AI-powered decision.
Regulatory compliance should be built into system design, not retrofitted after deployment. Boards and leadership teams must develop AI literacy in IT teams and beyond. Risk management frameworks need to evolve to cover algorithmic bias, data privacy and cross-border data flows, especially as the DPDP Act gets strictly implemented across the country. Governance is all about trust. In cybersecurity, where the stakes involve individuals, enterprises and national infrastructure, responsible AI deployment is not a compliance checkbox. It is a leadership obligation.
At Quick Heal Technologies Limited, we understand this. All our enterprise security products under the brand Seqrite are fully compliant with the DPDP Act norms, helping organisations achieve a stronger cybersecurity posture along with seamless regulatory compliance.
What strengths do women bring to AI cybersecurity leadership, and how can senior representation grow?
Women certainly bring a distinct strength to AI-based cybersecurity leadership because of biology as well as lived experience. Women in operational and compliance roles tend to prioritise systemic thinking, stakeholder empathy and long-term consequence mapping. These are the precise qualities that responsible AI deployment demands.
Cybersecurity transcends the technical domain, well into human and ethical ones. To accelerate gender representation at senior levels, the industry needs to address three things simultaneously: visible role models who normalise women in leadership, structural pipelines that support women through mid-career transitions, and active sponsorship.
We need to set intentional goals, track progress honestly and create cultures where inclusion is measured, not merely mentioned. The future of cybersecurity lies in diversity - not only in terms of technology but also in terms of the human minds behind it.
