Inside the AI-Powered Cybersecurity Revolution: Elik Etzion, Veteran Leader & Investor

By Michael Matias, CEO of Clarity and Forbes 30 Under 30 alum

The cybersecurity world isn’t just evolving—it’s transforming. That’s the message I heard loud and clear in my recent conversation with Elik Etzion, one of the most experienced voices at the intersection of cyber defense, offense, and venture capital. With a background that spans Israel’s national defense community and the private sector, including his time as Managing Partner at Elron Ventures, Elik sees the current AI wave not as an upgrade—but as a rewriting of the rules.

Elik didn’t hesitate to frame the moment we’re in: “With AI, we’ve given both attackers and defenders superpowers.” On one side, attackers now have access to tools that let them automate reconnaissance, generate polymorphic malware, and launch sophisticated campaigns with minimal effort. On the other side, defenders finally have the opportunity to shift from reactive fire drills to predictive, automated defense strategies—if they move fast enough. That “if” is doing a lot of work. As Elik put it bluntly: “There’s no slow path to success in cybersecurity today.”

That sense of urgency resonates deeply with me. At Clarity, we see how quickly generative threats evolve—whether it’s phishing attempts, deepfake social engineering, or AI-authored exploits. In this environment, organizations that cling to traditional, alert-centric models are constantly on the back foot. Elik emphasized that the old model of human analysts manually triaging dashboards is simply no longer sustainable. The future belongs to teams that operate like agile intelligence units—monitoring and orchestrating fleets of AI agents instead of reacting line by line to logs.
This is more than a tooling upgrade—it’s a shift in mindset. Cybersecurity professionals are becoming strategic operators. They’re not just hunting threats—they’re managing systems that hunt, simulate, and neutralize them in real time. According to Elik, one of the most important levers in this transformation is the startup ecosystem. “Startups have become the development arm of cybersecurity,” he said. And in his experience, the organizations that embrace fast-moving, narrowly focused innovation are the ones best positioned to adapt as threat surfaces expand.

It’s not just theory—it’s a structural advantage. Elik credits much of Israel’s leadership in global cyber innovation to the deep talent pipeline coming out of elite military intelligence units like 8200, where agility and experimentation are core values. That combination of technical depth and operational urgency is what has allowed Israeli founders to stay ahead of the curve and build world-class security products that scale.

What I took away from our conversation was clear: AI in cybersecurity isn’t a passing trend. It’s a complete paradigm shift. Organizations that understand this—and move quickly to rewire their infrastructure, processes, and teams around AI-native defense—will thrive. Those that don’t? They’ll be outpaced and outmaneuvered by threats that are already moving at machine speed.

Elik’s parting insight summed it up best: “AI demands that we move swiftly, strategically, and decisively.” In today’s cyber landscape, the only thing more dangerous than moving too fast—is moving too slow.

About Michael Matias:
Michael Matias is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clarity, an AI-powered cybersecurity startup backed by venture capital firms including Bessemer Venture Partners and Walden Catalyst. Clarity develops advanced AI technologies protecting organizations from sophisticated phishing attacks and AI-generated social engineering threats, including deepfakes. Before founding Clarity, Matias studied Computer Science with a specialization in AI at Stanford University and led cybersecurity teams in Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces. Forbes Israel recognized him early on, naming him to the exclusive 18Under18 list in 2013 and the Forbes 30Under30 list thereafter. Matias authored the book Age is Only an Int and hosts the podcast 20MinuteLeaders.