With AI models and AI-enabled services now embedded into business applications, security platforms, analytics pipelines, identity systems, and operational workflows, cybersecurity teams are responsible not only for protecting traditional infrastructure, but also for securing AI systems themselves.
This requires an augmented set of skills for cybersecurity pros to handle a changing landscape deeply influenced by AI. Enter CompTIA SecAI+, an AI security certification created to address the shift.
It validates practical, vendor-neutral skills that help cybersecurity professionals understand, secure, and govern AI-enabled environments as part of their existing security responsibilities.
Why AI security matters
Enterprise adoption of AI changes the cybersecurity threat landscape in fundamental ways; AI systems introduce new attack surfaces that did not exist in traditional application environments.
Models can be manipulated through techniques such as prompt injection, training-data poisoning, and adversarial machine learning. Training pipelines, feature stores, and model repositories become sensitive infrastructure assets. Even model outputs can be abused, leaked, or exploited.
AI also creates new misuse scenarios. Attackers increasingly rely on AI to automate reconnaissance, scale social engineering, and generate malicious content at speed. Internally, poorly governed AI systems can produce inaccurate or biased results that create regulatory, operational, and reputational risk.
Traditional security controls still matter. Network protection, identity and access management, vulnerability management, and logging remain essential foundations. However, they do not fully address risks such as model integrity, training data trust, lifecycle governance, or output misuse.
What is CompTIA SecAI+?
CompTIA SecAI+ is an expansion certification focused specifically on AI security. It is designed to validate the applied knowledge and operational skills required to secure AI systems, apply AI responsibly within security operations, and understand governance, risk, and compliance obligations associated with AI-enabled environments.
The certification focuses on how AI systems are built, deployed, and operated inside real organizations and on how security teams engage with those systems daily.
Vendor-neutral and applicable across AI platforms, cloud providers, development frameworks, and deployment models, the certification complements existing cybersecurity roles by extending professional security practice into AI-enabled systems and workflows.
Why CompTIA created SecAI+
Cybersecurity education has historically focused on infrastructure, networks, applications, and identity. Those domains remain essential, but organizations now rely on AI systems to support operational decision-making, automate workflows, and enhance security tooling itself.
This has created a visible skills gap. Security professionals are being asked to assess AI-related risks, evaluate third-party AI services, support enterprise AI governance programs, and respond to incidents involving AI components. At the same time, attacker behavior is evolving. AI-driven automation allows adversaries to scale attacks and adapt techniques more quickly than traditional approaches.
CompTIA created the SecAI+ certification to bridge the gap between established cybersecurity training and the realities of AI-driven enterprise environments. It provides structured, vendor-neutral coverage of AI security fundamentals, AI threat modeling, AI risk management, and operational governance.
How CompTIA SecAI+ works
CompTIA SecAI+ is delivered through a focused certification exam designed to assess applied knowledge and security decision-making. The current exam includes up to 60 questions, is completed in 60 minutes, and is offered in English.
Candidates can prepare through CompTIA’s learning products, including CertMaster Study, CertMaster Labs, and CertMaster Perform. Together, these resources typically represent around 20 to 25 hours of learning, depending on the individual learner's background.
The exam emphasizes real-world scenarios rather than academic theory. Candidates are expected to understand how AI systems operate in enterprise environments and how security teams interact with them across development, deployment, and operations.
CompTIA has applied for ISO 17024 accreditation and is already mapping SecAI+ to relevant DoD 8140 work roles, with both alignments pending official confirmation.
What an expansion certification means
SecAI+ is classified as an expansion certification, and that distinction is important. Expansion certifications are designed to extend existing professional skills into a defined technical or operational domain. They deliver focused coverage that complements broader role-based certifications and help professionals demonstrate advanced expertise in specific areas.
SecAI+ expands and builds on existing cybersecurity skills by confirming focused competence in AI security concepts and practices, without being restricted to one specific job title or tightly defined work role. It is designed to strengthen how you apply cybersecurity expertise in environments where AI systems and tools are in use.
This makes SecAI+ particularly suitable for professionals who already hold or are working toward broader cybersecurity certifications and want to demonstrate additional depth in AI security—showcasing a valuable specialization that enhances their primary credentials.
Skills and knowledge SecAI+ covers
CompTIA SecAI+ focuses on the practical realities of securing AI systems in production environments. It covers foundational AI concepts relevant to security teams, including how machine learning workflows, training processes, data pipelines, and deployment architectures affect risk and control.
The certification emphasizes securing AI systems across their full lifecycle—from protecting training data and model artifacts to securing build and deployment pipelines, maintaining model integrity, and monitoring live systems for misuse or degradation. It also addresses the use of AI within security operations, including how AI-driven detection, response, and automation tools introduce new benefits as well as risks such as false positives, blind spots, and model drift.
In addition, SecAI+ covers AI-specific threats such as adversarial machine learning, data poisoning, model manipulation, and prompt-based attacks, along with the governance, risk, and compliance requirements needed to manage AI systems responsibly in enterprise environments.
Who SecAI+ is designed for
CompTIA SecAI+ is intended for professionals who already have hands-on experience in IT and cybersecurity. CompTIA recommends roughly three to four years of general IT experience, including about two years in cybersecurity.
Typical candidates include security engineers, analysts, and operations professionals who are responsible for environments that incorporate AI components, teams that manage AI-enabled security platforms, and professionals who support risk, compliance, and governance initiatives involving AI systems.
SecAI+ is not designed for individuals entering cybersecurity for the first time. It is aimed at practitioners who already understand core security practices and now need to extend those skills into AI-enabled environments.
How SecAI+ fits into the CompTIA cybersecurity pathway
CompTIA’s cybersecurity pathway includes established certifications such as Security+, CySA+, PenTest+, and SecurityX. SecAI+ complements those credentials rather than replacing them.
- Security+ establishes foundational cybersecurity skills.
- CySA+ focuses on detection, monitoring, and analysis.
- PenTest+ emphasizes offensive security and testing.
- SecurityX covers advanced architecture and enterprise security.
- SecAI+ adds AI security depth across all those roles.
For example, a SOC analyst may use SecAI+ to validate knowledge of AI-enabled detection systems and AI-specific threat behavior. A security engineer may use it to demonstrate competence in securing AI pipelines and deployments. Governance and compliance professionals may use SecAI+ to formalize expertise in AI risk management and regulatory readiness.
In this way, SecAI+ strengthens an existing cybersecurity career path by addressing one of the fastest-growing skill requirements in modern security roles.
AI is already embedded into platforms and services without being labeled as a distinct “AI initiative”.
This means security teams may already be responsible for monitoring AI-enabled platforms, reviewing vendor risk for AI services, supporting automation driven by machine learning, or responding to incidents involving generative AI misuse.
SecAI+ reflects this reality, designed for professionals who encounter AI systems as part of broader enterprise security responsibilities, even when AI is not their primary focus.
Next steps
CompTIA SecAI+ can be used to formally demonstrate readiness for AI-driven security responsibilities, providing a vendor-neutral way to validate the skills needed to secure AI systems, manage AI risk, and support organizational AI governance initiatives.
From there, SecAI+ can serve as a foundation for continued progression into more advanced or specialized cybersecurity roles—such as security architecture, cloud and platform security, or governance and risk leadership—as AI becomes an increasingly central component of enterprise security operations.
Ready to bridge the AI skills gap? Explore CompTIA SecAI+ and get certified today.