Rebecca Harness, Chief Information Security Officer at Deltek explains why resilience, security by design and trusted AI are becoming essential foundations for every project-based organisation.
If the seismic cyber shocks of 2025 taught us one thing, it’s how valuable preparedness and resilience have become.
As attacks became more frequent and disruptive, their impact was felt far beyond frontline technical teams.
In project-based organisations that depend on real-time collaboration and shared digital platforms, ongoing disruption had the potential to translate into missed deadlines, lost momentum and client uncertainty.
The consequence of this escalation forced a reassessment of long-held assumptions.
One of the most positive outcomes of a challenging year is that security is no longer viewed as a brake on transformation, especially when the absence of it creates the greatest drag on delivery.
2025 showed that resilient, well-integrated security keeps work moving, even under pressure.
Built into systems and workflows, security enables organisations to move with confidence, experiment safely and deliver at pace.
This reframing matters. In sectors where innovation and reputation are tightly linked, security designed into systems and processes allows creativity to flourish within clear, reliable guardrails.
It becomes a foundation for growth, not an obstacle to it.
That shift is arriving at a pivotal moment for project-based businesses.
Across architecture, engineering and consulting organisations, digital transformation has reached a level of maturity that demands the strongest of foundations, with our own research finding over half of UK project-based firms (56%) now describe themselves at a ‘mature’ or ‘advanced’ stage of the evolution.
As digital platforms, cloud environments and AI-enabled tools become central to project delivery, expectations around stability and clarity have increased significantly.
One of the clearest patterns to emerge over the past year is the move towards security by design.
As cloud platforms, SaaS tools and AI-driven systems are woven deeper into project lifecycles, the consequences of disruption have become more immediate and more visible.
In project-based industries, such as architecture, engineering and consulting, work is tightly scheduled and often delivered across multiple stakeholders.
Here, even short interruptions can quickly turn into cost overruns and reputational damage.
Our own research into the sector highlights the pressures driving this change.
Rising competition for talent (30%) and increasing project complexity (28%) are now among the most significant challenges project-based organisations expect to face over the next three years.
Expectations around delivery, transparency and responsiveness continue to rise, leaving little room for systems that slow teams down or introduce uncertainty.
These pressures are shaping where organisations invest their time and resources.
Our report shows that the top two priorities for firms are investing in new technology, including AI (39%) and ensuring the effective implementation of those innovations (37%).
This emphasis on implementation is telling, it reflects a growing recognition that technology alone does not deliver results; value is created when systems are secure, resilient and designed to support how projects actually run.
Security by design plays a central role in making this possible.
When compliance and security controls are embedded directly into workflows, approvals and financial systems, teams experience less friction rather than more.
Clear guardrails reduce ambiguity, data becomes more reliable and decision-making accelerates.
This supports faster project delivery while reducing risk, allowing organisations to balance innovation with accountability.
There is also a clear link between secure foundations and operational visibility.
According to our report, in 2025, confidence in tracking key project metrics such as profitability, budgets and client satisfaction rose to 75%, up from 59% the year before.
This visibility enables leaders to make decisions earlier and with greater confidence, particularly in complex, multi-phase projects where small issues can quickly escalate if left unchecked.
Resilience, in this context, is being redefined.
Continuity planning, redundancy and clear communication protocols are no longer viewed as contingency measures reserved for worst-case scenarios, instead they are emerging as everyday enablers of productivity.
When teams know that projects can continue during disruption, trust is reinforced both internally and externally.
Deadlines are protected, client relationships remain stable and organisations are better positioned to adapt when conditions change.
For project-based businesses, this ability to maintain momentum is critical.
Clients increasingly expect assurance that delivery will continue regardless of external disruption and resilience is becoming an implicit part of value rather than an optional extra.
Alongside the evolution of security, AI is moving decisively from experimentation into operational reality.
For project-based organisations, the focus must move to how to integrate AI responsibly and at scale.
This is increasingly recognised as a core engineering competency, in which all practices are grounded in governance, transparency and data integrity.
AI is closely tied to the pressures the sector is facing today.
Rising project complexity and ongoing talent shortages are encouraging organisations to look for ways to streamline processes, improve forecasting and enhance expertise.
Around 40% of firms are actively prioritising AI and automation to streamline project processes, using technology to support delivery rather than add complexity.
At the same time, there is growing awareness that people remain central to successful transformation.
The opportunity to invest further in upskilling and employee engagement remains a key focus area, reinforcing the need for AI to support teams rather than replace them.
In project-based environments, where specialist knowledge and professional judgement are critical, AI delivers the most value when it augments expertise, rather than attempting to automate it away.
A considered use of AI creates a stable foundation for this next phase of innovation to stem from.
Model governance, data lineage and explainability provide assurance that systems are operating as intended and that outcomes can be understood and trusted.
This is particularly important as AI becomes embedded in core project processes, influencing everything from resource allocation to financial forecasting.
Trust plays a defining role here. Clients need confidence that data is accurate, decisions are auditable and automated insights can be explained. Culture is also a critical enabler.
Many organisations are placing greater emphasis on collaboration, continuous learning and access to advanced technologies.
When security, governance and culture are closely aligned, organisations are better equipped to translate experimentation into lasting operational improvement.
Strong security foundations and ethical AI practices create the confidence to innovate throughout 2026, even as projects become more complex and expectations increase.
For project-based businesses, confidently treating security as a design principle for the future is now a non-negotiable for protecting trust, strengthening delivery and giving innovation the confidence to flourish.
