At a pivotal moment for AI and cybersecurity, AI Insiders: Cybersecurity Edition gathered 130 of the most influential minds in the space at AWS Builders Loft for a highly curated salon designed to surface zero-day insights and catalyze new defense paradigms. The evening, hosted by Marvelous, the AI operating system for real-world event automation, focused on how autonomous agents and LLMs are reshaping the cyber threat landscape and what must come next. 

“As AI becomes both a weapon and a shield, cybersecurity can’t afford to lag behind standing still is a three-year head start for the adversary, especially when 98% of CISOs expect an AI-driven attack surge within that time,” said Merve Isler, founder of Marvelous.

Structured as a vertical intelligence ecosystem rather than a traditional conference, the event attracted high-trust guests working at the bleeding edge of AI and security innovation.

The audience composition reflected the moment’s intensity: 50% CISOs and security leads from major enterprises, decision-makers on budget, tooling, and response strategy. 30% were AI founders and technical builders, building tools for red-teaming, LLM hardening, and agent alignment. 10% were investors from top-tier funds like a16z, Greylock, Menlo Ventures, CRV, and Ballistic Ventures. The final 10% included analysts and security media, invited to listen, though most discussions remained off the record to foster candor and collaboration.

Backed by partners including Lakera and AWS, Cyera, Tinfoil, Pangea, Zania AI, Straiker AI, and HC Consulting, AI Insiders continues to serve as a nexus for domain-specific AI collaboration.

AI Insiders was founded and curated by Merve Isler, a globally recognized ecosystem strategist and former Google community architect. With a decade of experience designing high-trust innovation communities across Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and the United States, she has built founder and technology networks in some of the world’s most complex and fast-evolving ecosystems. Through AI Insiders, Isler brings this global expertise into vertical-specific, high-signal gatherings that spark meaningful industry collaboration. AI Insiders the highly curated and most trusted AI community in San Francisco. 

She founded Marvelous to democratize the tools and systems behind this kind of high-impact convening, transforming what was once exclusive into something scalable. The platform’s vision is shared in her Marvelous 10-year Memo at themarvelo.us/memo. 

Where Intelligence Meets Defense

Before programming began, guests were welcomed with curated matchmaking by Marvelous, local craft drinks, and light bites designed to spark meaningful connections.

Hosts Merve Isler (Marvelous), Julie Tsai (Cybersecurity Executive), and Bhavya Gupta (Stanford) opened the night with a call to action; AI is already disrupting security doctrine and the room held those best equipped to respond.

Bhavya Gupta added, “AI is no longer just a tool in cybersecurity, it’s becoming an active player, making decisions, adapting in real time, and rewriting the pace of both attack and defense. The real question now isn’t just how we secure AI, but how we secure with it.”

Christopher Chew, Supervisory Special Agent at the FBI, delivered a sobering look at how LLMs are being exploited in real-world threat campaigns, while Michelle Dennedy, CPO-in-Residence at Abaxx / PrivacyCode (ex-Cisco, Sun, Juniper), outlined frameworks for privacy-at-scale in autonomous systems.

The VCs’ View on Cybersecurity in the AI Era panel, moderated by David Colombo, unpacked how capital flows into AI-native security and which types of infrastructure are still underserved.

 Panelists:

• Malika Aubakirova (Partner, a16z)
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• Chenxi Wang (Managing General Partner, Rain Capital)
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• David Hahn (Partner, Ballistic Ventures)
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• James Green (Partner, CRV)
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• Shreya Shekhar (Partner, Greylock)

Building the Future of AI Security & Resilience panel moderated by Feyza Haskaraman (Principal, Menlo Ventures), this panel went deep into technical strategy and startup challenges. From model-level defense to real-time observability in agentic workflows, panelists revealed what’s working and what’s not.

Startup Showcase: Six Startups Defining AI-Native Cyber Defense

A rapid-fire showcase spotlighted the next wave of security innovation tools built from the ground up for LLMs, agents, and adversarial environments.

• Straiker AI– Ankur Shah unveiled real-time threat detection for AI-native applications.
• Lakera – David Haber demonstrated scalable defenses against model exploitation.
• Zania AI – Aidan Collins introduced agentic security tooling designed for continuous learning environments.
• Cyera – Adam DeGraff showcased enterprise-ready data protection for AI-integrated cloud systems.
• Pangea – Oliver Friedrichs showcased workforce AI tool usage and AI activity within applications.
• Tinfoil– Tanya Verma closed with a vision for lightweight, developer-first LLM security primitives.

As with every AI Insiders gathering curated by Merve Isler, the experience blended substance with style. This time, the evening unfolded to the sound of live jazz, following past salons that

featured AI-generated piano performances. Guests enjoyed bites and carefully selected wines, adding to the ambiance of thoughtful conversation and connection. The night closed with high-trust, no-agenda networking among operators, security architects, investors, and researchers. Many discussions extended well beyond closing, sparking collaborations that Marvelous and its founder Isler will continue nurturing through future AI Insiders salons across verticals like Healthcare & Biotech, Fintech, Robotics & Automation, and culminating in the H1 of 2026 flagship summit.

About Marvelous

Marvelous is an AI-powered operating system for in-person event automation and a real-time collaboration AI community platform. Built for teams who activate physical spaces with digital efficiency, Marvelous enables users to launch and manage live experiences through agentic workflows that automate vendor matching, budgeting, logistics, and post-event analytics. The platform is headquartered in San Francisco and supports high-frequency event execution across experiential marketing, founder communities, and enterprise innovation programs. Founded by Merve Isler, a former Google community strategist, Marvelous powers scalable, on-demand coordination for IRL activations. Learn more at themarvelo.us.

About AI Insiders

AI Insiders is a verticalized series of events and private founder network for AI professionals and researchers. Organized by Marvelous, each gathering convenes 150 pre-vetted participants working across core AI sectors, including cybersecurity, fintech, robotics, enterprise SaaS, synthetic media, and healthcare AI. The series is designed to surface zero-day intelligence, facilitate startup-investor deal flow, and support domain-specific collaboration across the broader San Francisco AI ecosystem. The 2026 roadmap includes a 1,500-person flagship conference focused on the evolving AI toolchain, agent infrastructure, and applied research community. Request access at themarvelo.us/ai.