ESET relaunches PROTECT portfolio with AI security and MDR for SMBs
ESET has overhauled its PROTECT product portfolio, restructuring its endpoint and managed security offerings into three tiers that bundle AI-specific security controls, managed detection and response (MDR), and a new cyber-warranty component. The relaunch, announced on 30 September 2026, is positioned as a shift from a traditional software-licensing model toward cybersecurity-as-a-service, with the stated aim of making enterprise-grade MDR accessible to small and mid-sized businesses.
The three tiers, Core, Premium and Ultimate, are priced from five seats upward for the entry level and ten seats for the upper two. Core covers AI stack protection, anti-ransomware and zero-day defences. Premium adds autonomous MDR response supervised by ESET analysts around the clock. Ultimate extends that to live engagement with ESET's threat-hunting team for what the company describes as enterprise-grade remediation. A set of "Plus" packages at each tier adds mail security, multi-factor authentication, and vulnerability and patch management for customers who need multi-vector coverage.
AI security features and shadow-AI focus
Three new proprietary modules sit across all tiers: AI Agent Security, AI Behavioral Monitoring and AI Conversation Security. ESET positions these as a response to the proliferation of unsanctioned AI tools inside organisations, a category often called shadow AI, which security teams have struggled to govern through conventional endpoint and network controls. The company says the modules are built on more than two decades of internal ML research rather than licensed from third-party vendors, a point it frames as a supply-chain security argument.
Ryan Grant, Country Manager for the US and Canada at ESET North America, said the expansion of AI use across workplaces had "rapidly" increased the scale and complexity of threat parameters for organisations of all sizes. ESET is also including a Cyber Warranty, delivered through an unnamed partnership with insurer Cysurance, covering up to one million US dollars in the event of a qualifying incident.
The awareness training component is designed to meet several regulatory frameworks including NIS2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX, GDPR and CCPA, which the company says positions it to help customers satisfy both compliance and cyber-insurance underwriting requirements. MDR Guided Onboarding is offered as an accelerated deployment path intended to reduce setup friction.
Market context and competitive positioning
The cybersecurity-as-a-service market for SMBs is increasingly crowded. Vendors including Sophos, Huntress, Arctic Wolf and Blackpoint Cyber have all staked claims in the fully managed security segment for sub-enterprise customers, while the major endpoint platforms, CrowdStrike and SentinelOne, have pushed MDR offerings down-market. ESET's differentiator is its European Union headquarters and private ownership structure, which may carry weight with buyers sensitive to data-residency and supply-chain-sovereignty concerns, particularly under the EU's NIS2 Directive and the broader digital-sovereignty agenda gaining traction in European procurement.
The AI security angle is timely but contested. Most endpoint vendors now claim AI-native detection, and several have introduced controls targeting AI application behaviour following the rapid enterprise adoption of large language model tools since 2023. ESET's claim to supply-chain advantage through proprietary AI development rather than third-party components is plausible given its R&D footprint, but the company has not released independent benchmark data to support comparative efficacy claims.
The new portfolio is launching first in the United States, Italy and Slovakia, with other markets to follow in a phased rollout. ESET did not disclose pricing figures, the number of existing customers expected to migrate to the new tiers, or a completion date for the global rollout. Those details will be watched closely as indicators of whether the repositioning translates into measurable commercial traction.