Cybersecurity leaders have long struggled to secure adequate budgets, despite the growing threat landscape. However, the emergence of advanced AI systems capable of autonomous cyber operations is creating a sense of urgency at the board level, potentially unlocking the cyber budgets Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) have been seeking for years. The spread of agentic AI within enterprises has heightened the awareness of cybersecurity risks, making it a priority at the highest levels of organizations. This shift is particularly significant given the rise of state-aligned threat activity, which elevates the implications of a breach from a simple criminal act to a geopolitical concern1. As a result, cybersecurity is no longer viewed as just an IT issue, but a critical business imperative. This newfound attention may finally provide CISOs with the resources they need to effectively combat emerging threats, so what matters most to practitioners is how they can leverage this momentum to secure the necessary funding to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated attacks.