Yotam Segev Is on the 2026 TIME100 Next - Time Magazine
A bad (human) employee can be fired, disciplined, or sent to jail. It’s not so with AI agents. If an agent acts recklessly with company data—sharing proprietary code in public, for example—the same deterrents don’t apply. As a result, says Yotam Segev, “the mentality of security has to change completely.”
Segev leads Cyera, which creates systems to govern access to a company’s sensitive data. The company builds AI-native defense systems so its clients can “keep up with the pace of an AI-native attacker.” Founded in 2021, the company is valued today at $12 billion—a 24-fold increase from three years prior.
He says he draws inspiration from Tibetan mandala ceremonies, where monks spend days placing grains of colorful sand, only to destroy their creation once it’s done. “That mindset of not getting attached to the achievement or the thing you have built—that’s the mindset that you have to adopt in technology today in order to win,” he says.
