Less than one in ten of cybersecurity pros trust AI testing tools to find vulnerabilities, with over three-quarters say their AI vulnerability scanning tools missed critical flaws

A close up of a person's eyes and face. They are wearing glasses and in one eye there's. a reflection of a digital brain.

• Cobalt’s 2026 State of Pentesting Report shows confidence in fully automated AI testing collapsed from 29% in 2025 to 9% this year
• 78% of respondents saw automated tools miss critical vulnerabilities; LLM flaws proved complex, with MTTR rising from 19 to 36 days and most issues left unresolved
• Hybrid models surged to 47% adoption, as experts stress automation should complement, not replace, elite human expertise in uncovering business logic risks

As the world praises Mythos, and the Chinese rush to create their own variant, a report painting an entirely different picture comes from Cobalt.