A manual pentest costs 50,000 dollars. Intruder built an AI that does it in minutes.

https://media.thenextweb.com/2026/05/intruder-ai-pentesting-cybersecurity-knowbe4.avif

TL;DR

Intruder, a GCHQ-accelerated UK cybersecurity startup, launched AI pentesting agents that replicate manual pen testing methodology in minutes. The broader market is racing to automate vulnerability discovery as AI compresses the gap between offence and defence.

A manual penetration test costs between 10,000 and 50,000 dollars. It takes weeks to schedule, days to execute, and produces a report that is out of date before the ink dries. Intruder, a London-based cybersecurity company that graduated from GCHQ’s Cyber Accelerator, has launched AI pentesting agents that replicate the methodology of a human pen tester and deliver results in minutes.

The company’s chief executive, Chris Wallis, will present the technology at KnowBe4’s KB4-CON conference on 13 May. The pitch is simple: the depth of a manual pentest, available on demand, at a fraction of the cost.

The timing is not accidental. The cybersecurity industry is watching AI transform the attack side of...

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