As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes all-pervasive, a new report has forecast that technology would replace humans by 2031 in the field of cybersecurity, as hackers use more sophisticated tools.

Cloud security firm 'Trend Micro' in a new report said more than two-fifth (41 per cent) of IT leaders believe that AI would replace their role by 2030.

Just nine per cent of respondents said AI would not replace their job within the next decade.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) said AI would eventually work to completely automate all cybersecurity.

Nearly one in five (19 per cent) believe that attackers using AI to enhance their arsenal would be commonplace by 2025.

"The seismic events of 2020 have created long lasting changes in work environments across the globe and opened up new avenues that cybercriminals can abuse. Cybersecurity will help enterprises, governments and ordinary users adapt safely to these new conditions in 2021," said the report.

Nearly one in five of those surveyed said attackers using AI to enhance their goals would be commonplace by 2025.

Nearly a quarter of IT leaders also claimed that by 2030, data access would be tied to biometric or DNA data, making unauthorised access impossible.

When it comes to this year, telecommuting would continue in 2021 and hybrid environments where work and personal tasks co-mingle in one machine, would be challenging in terms of security.

"Organisations -- especially global enterprises -- will have less control over their data. Delineating where data is stored and processed will become more difficult. The decreased visibility into enterprise devices only gets more problematic when employees access personal apps from work devices," said the report titled "Turning the Tide".

Both users and enterprises would have to protect work-from-home setups from threats and IT teams would need to secure entire remote workforces and individual users would have to secure their virtual workspaces and endpoint devices in 2021.

The number of Covid-19-related spam emails and phishing attempts are increasing.

"Cybercriminals will continue to use the coronavirus, and other related incidents from the pandemic's fallout to lure in new victims."