The integration of AI into critical systems has ushered in a new class of intelligent cyber threats adaptive, evasive, and scalable ranging from adversarial attacks on models to AI-automated social engineering and autonomous malware. We addresses a critical question, How do we secure AI not just as a tool, but as a strategic asset? It introduces a maturity-based perspective, arguing that cybersecurity resilience must evolve alongside AI adoption from experimental pilots to enterprise-scale deployment. We examine emerging threats model theft, data poisoning, jailbreaking as attack vectors,poisoned fine-tuning datasets, and AI-enabled zero-day discovery recently, and propose a shift toward intelligent defense, AI-augmented threat hunting, self-explaining security systems, and proactive red-teaming with generative models. we call for a paradigm where security is embedded in AI governancenot bolted on afterward. In the age of intelligent systems, maturity means responsibility, foresight, and ethical vigilance.