An analysis of 81 RSAC 2026 exhibitors and what the numbers reveal about who actually broke through
Remember the Chad archetype? The early 2010s internet meme who mistook volume for value, arrived first, spoke loudest, and counted on everyone being too polite to ask what, exactly, he was actually offering?
Walk the RSAC 2026 show floor and you'd recognize him immediately, just operating under a new name: agentic AI.
At RSAC 2026, nearly half of the 81 exhibitors we analyzed (43.2%) led with “AI” as their primary message with no proof, no specificity, and nothing a buyer or journalist could actually use. The word did the heavy lifting so the company didn’t have to.
To be clear: the technology is real, and the companies doing serious work in agentic security absolutely deserve the attention they’re getting. But at RSAC 2026, “agentic” was pulling Chad duty: showing up early, talking loudly, and banking on the fact that most people wouldn’t push back. It’s a trap that catches even the most seasoned communications teams.
The industry grabbed the new term before it had earned the right to use it. Meanwhile, the buyers those companies were trying to reach by using that term — CISOs, security directors, those who actually hold the purse strings — had largely stopped walking the floor. They were at the vendor-hosted dinner two blocks away, the invite-only investor briefing, or the peer roundtable that was too candid for a RSAC stage. The C-suite fulfilled their visibility obligations, took the booth photos, and headed back to the rooms where the real conversations were happening.
This isn't a failure of ambition, but a failure of format, which has been quietly breaking down for years. The show floor was full, however the right people weren't on it; and no amount of AI messaging was going to change that.
Every term in cybersecurity communications follows the same arc. A word emerges from genuine technical development, gets picked up by early movers who earn real coverage, then gets copied until it stops meaning anything. "Zero Trust" is there now, appearing in just 7.4% of RSAC 2026 booth messaging, not because it's irrelevant, but because it's expected. Reporters don't write stories about things that are expected.
AI is in that same position. When 43.2% of exhibitors use the same word as their lead message, it functions less like a claim and more like background noise. Buyers (75% of whom now prefer to do their research without speaking to a sales rep) are looking for a fact, a number, a customer outcome. Not a category label.
Only 13.6% of booths paired their claims with product screenshots or evidence. Those that did gave reporters something concrete to anchor a story to. The rest asked journalists to take their word for it. Most didn't.
The buzzword problem is a symptom. The true ailment is structural: many cybersecurity companies make communications decisions by watching each other, not by asking what makes them genuinely different.
For example, two industry leaders in separate categories shared 67% messaging overlap. Two others overlapped at 75%. These aren't companies that lack distinction, but maybe they're companies who have quietly erased it.
When two companies in the same category say the same things, one gets a story and one doesn't. The deciding factor is rarely which product is better. It's which story a journalist can write in the time they have.
The stories that earned coverage shared one quality: they were specific enough to be surprising.
One of the most-discussed stories at RSAC 2026 wasn't even a product announcement. It was the U.S. government's absence. CISA, the FBI, and the NSA all withdrew after RSAC appointed former CISA Director Jen Easterly as CEO. No communications team planned it. But it illustrates how context generates more coverage than any press release, and why the best communicators counsel clients on both the prepared announcement and the conversation happening around it.
As live events increasingly convene senior leaders, journalists are spending less time on the show floor and more time in the hallways, the dinners, and the closed-door sessions because that's where the actual news is forming.
The same is true of buyers. Tech decision-makers are showing up at in-person events as part of their research process, but the research isn’t happening at the booth. It’s happening in the conversations around it: the investor panels, the vendor-hosted roundtables, the prospect dinners where no one is presenting a slide deck.
The communicators who served clients best at RSAC understood both dimensions: the prepared announcement and the hallway conversation. They had data, not just claims. And they knew that in a room where 43% of companies say the same word, the most powerful move is to say something different and back it up.
Before Black Hat or whatever your next conference is try this: Challenge your team to explain what your company actually does without using a single buzzword. No "AI-powered." No "next-generation." No "end-to-end." Just plain English, spoken out loud, to someone as if they don’t work in security.
If they can do it, you have a story. If they can't, you have a problem that no amount of booth spend will fix.
The buzzwords aren't the enemy. Used right, and after you've done the hard work of knowing what you actually mean - they're useful shorthand. But they have to come second. The so-what comes first. Always.
The companies that broke through at RSAC weren't necessarily the largest or the most funded. They were the ones that had resisted the pull toward imitation, and had asked harder questions about what they know, what they can prove, and what a reporter could actually do with what they're being told.
RSAC 2026 was the stress test. Hacker Summer Camp (aka Black Hat) is what comes next. The window to walk in with something worth saying is right now.
At Highwire, we help cybersecurity brands cruise on top of the sea of sameness — with messaging grounded in proof, not just promise. Whether you're preparing for Black Hat, a product launch, or a full communications reset, we'd love to help you find the story only you can tell.
Let's talk. Reach out to our team to start the conversation before the next conference season is already in your rearview mirror.