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Hack The Box has released its AI-Augmented vs Human-Only Cybersecurity Performance Benchmark Report, based on the NeuroGrid CTF competition—the largest side-by-side study of agentic AI and human performance on cybersecurity tasks—revealing significant productivity gains for AI-augmented teams alongside cautions about talent pipeline risks.
Hack The Box’s benchmark analyzed data from 1,078 teams—120 agentic AI teams and 958 human teams—across 36 cybersecurity challenges in nine technical domains and four difficulty levels during a three-day competition. The results highlight how AI accelerates performance while underscoring the continued necessity of human expertise, especially in high-complexity and novel scenarios.
“AI can raise the bar of cybersecurity performance, but it does not eliminate the need for human expertise,” said Haris Pylarinos, Founder and CEO of Hack The Box. “Our findings show measurable productivity gains, but also predictable failure patterns. Security leaders must build and test human-in-the-loop workflows that are proven under pressure, and develop the AI and cybersecurity skills needed to unlock benefits safely as models evolve.”
The study revealed distinct impacts across skill tiers:
“Routine and mid-level work is where enterprises will see immediate ROI,” said Gibb Witham, President of Hack The Box. “If organizations over-index on automating the tasks that build judgment, they risk trading long-term resilience for short-term efficiency. Agentic automation must be paired with deliberate human skill development. For enterprises, the competitive advantage will not come from AI adoption alone. It will come from training cybersecurity professionals to effectively orchestrate, validate, and govern AI-driven workflows and agents.”
The benchmark emphasizes that AI-augmented, human-in-the-loop models delivered the strongest overall results, raising baseline performance while still requiring human validation for novel or highly complex tasks. The report cautions that excessive reliance on AI for medium-complexity work—the traditional training ground for developing judgment—could hollow out the pipeline that produces future senior experts.
Hack The Box will present a deeper analysis of the research at RSAC 2026 on March 26 in the Village showcase.
About Hack The Box
Hack The Box is the leading cyber readiness platform for the agentic era, battle-testing and upskilling both humans and AI agents to enhance organizational cyber resilience. Trusted by the Fortune 500, government agencies, and MSSPs, the platform delivers threat-informed learning paths consisting of real-world scenarios in gamified labs and live-fire simulations that build and validate offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. With a loyal community of more than 4 million members and 800+ enterprise customers, Hack The Box empowers teams and intelligent systems alike to strengthen cyber defenses and reduce breach risk effectively.
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