From Annual Checkbox To Continuous SDLC Testing: Operationalizing AI Pentests - Andy Dennis of XBow

From Annual Checkbox To Continuous SDLC Testing: Operationalizing AI Pentests - Andy Dennis of XBow

From The Security Repo by Mackenzie Jackson & Dwayne McDaniel

March 13, 2026 · 20 min

About this episode

Dwayne McDaniel interviews Andy Dennis about operationalizing AI-backed penetration testing and its implications for continuous testing in the software development lifecycle.

In this episode of the Security Repo Podcast, Dwayne catches up with returning guest Andy Dennis (Head of Field Engineering at XBOW) to unpack what it really means to run “AI-backed” penetration testing at scale, without turning red teaming into a gimmick. They dig into how XBOW approaches discovery, guardrails, and reporting beyond “scan results,” and why operationalizing LLM-driven testing in real enterprises still demands SaaS-grade controls and infrastructure. The conversation closes on where this all goes next: continuous testing in the SDLC, deeper discovery of business-logic bugs, and a near future where findings increasingly translate into remediation-ready pull requests. https://xbow.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-d-b43a17b/Head of Field Engineering at XBOW. Published author. Public speaker. Former undergraduate tutor and examiner. Cyber Security and AI Strategy. M&A technical due diligence. 22+ years in industry. International team management experience across 5 continents and 400+ individuals. Interest in Cybernetics. Andy has 22+ years experience in the technology industry and has worked in the UK, Canada and US. He’s had 5 books published on a variety of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mackenzie Jackson, Dwayne McDaniel

Guest: Andy Dennis

Topics covered

  • AI penetration testing
  • continuous testing
  • SDLC
  • cybersecurity
  • business-logic bugs

Keywords

  • AI
  • penetration testing
  • SDLC
  • cybersecurity
  • continuous testing
  • business-logic bugs
  • reporting

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: XBOW, Goldsmith’s College, HEC

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