10 Best Antivirus Programs of 2022 (AI Powered)

Antivirus programs have been crucial to keeping computer systems safe for decades. With some of the largest and most advanced cyberattacks occurring over the last few years, advanced antivirus programs are becoming even more crucial. Attackers are constantly developing new techniques involving automated tools like bots, which makes it nearly impossible for traditional antivirus solutions to operate efficiently. Because of these new developments, businesses are opting for AI-based solutions rather than traditional antivirus.

Before we dive into the 10 Best Antivirus Programs of 2022 (AI-Powered), it’s important to distinguish traditional antivirus software from the new AI-powered solutions.

Traditional antivirus works by comparing potential malicious threats to previously encountered instances of similar threats. It does this through things like data signatures, pattern analysis, and files. Once it recognizes a threat, it works to stop the files from infecting your network. While this proved useful for years, new cyberthreats are requiring far more security solutions. This is especially true as many of today’s hackers are actually organized national groups with state sponsorship.

When it comes to AI-powered antivirus software, it can base its decisions on what it learns. In other words, these new AI solutions can use “reason” to evaluate network threats, which is far more advanced than traditional approaches. With machine learning, antivirus software can detect new threats without needing to rely on signatures. Signature checkers can only detect malware that has been seen before, which is a major limitation. To get around this, machine learning is trained to recognize the signs of good and bad files, meaning it can detect malicious patterns even if the software has never encountered it before.

Now that you know the major differences between traditional antivirus software and today’s machine learning solutions, let’s take a look at the 10 best AI-powered solutions on the market:

1. Webroot

Topping the list is Webroot, which is one of the best AI-powered solutions on the market. It scans at an ultra-high speed while using just a small portion of your system’s resources. The company has a long-held reputation of protecting users against all types of cyber threats since 1997. Achieving the status as one of the lightest and fastest antivirus programs available, it checks for malware and clears out detected threats rapidly.

How does Webroot work? Rather than relying on a traditional signature database to identify computer threats, it uses metadata and analyzes behavioral patterns.

One of the major advantages of Webroot is that it is designed in a way that makes it usable by all-sized businesses, rather than just large enterprises. Many business-grade solutions are complex and require massive amounts of resources and people to manage. Webroot is designed from the ground up to be automated, easy-to-use, and lightweight.

Here are some of the advantages of Webroot:

Protects usernames, passwords, account numbers, and other sensitive data

Real-time anti-phishing

Takes up an incredibly small amount of space

Performs without any lag, finishing system check in approximately 20 seconds

Click Here to Visit Webroot

2. Panda Dome

Panda Dome is another top antivirus suite offering various features, cybersecurity protections, and pricing options. It stands out with some features that are often hard to come by, such as a rescue kit that removes malware from PCs via a USB drive, and USB protection that scans USB drives for malware. It also enables you to lock important files behind high-level encryption.

One of Panda’s top security features is its antivirus scanner, which provides three scanning options:

Critical areas: PC memory, current processors, etc.

Full scan: Entire PC

Custom scan: Specific files and folders

Outside of its regular scan, Panda also has a cloud-based scanner that acts as a separate antivirus scanning engine. It relies on cloud-based technology to scan for advanced threats often missed by regular antiviruses.

Another one of Panda’s unique tools is its Rescue Kit, which allows users to rescue infected PCs by creating a “rescue USB drive.” This rescue drive can then be used to boot devices, which are then cleaned through the cloud scanner.

Here are some of the advantages of Panda Dome:

Easy-to-use and effective file encryption tool

Device cleaning tools that free up space on the PC, defragment drives, and more

VPN with unlimited browsing data (dependent on pricing plan)

Parental controls

Gaming mode

Click Here to Visit Panda Dome

3. Deep Instinct D-Client

Another top name for AI-powered antivirus is Deep Instinct, which relies on deep learning to detect any file before it is accessed or executed on your system. The Deep Instinct D-Client uses static file analysis and a threat prediction model to eliminate malware and other system threats, and it can do so autonomously.

By leveraging massive amounts of raw data, the system continues to improve its detection algorithms. It is one of the only systems on the market that uses private deep learning infrastructure to improve detection.

Here are some of the advantages of Deep Instinct D-Client:

Extremely lightweight

Eliminates frequent cloud checks and agent updates

Guaranteed false positive rate under 0.1%

Provides support across macOS, Windows, Android, ChromeOS, and Linux

4. Avast

Avast is one of the most familiar names in cybersecurity. Its antivirus software is the most popular on the market, and it has been consistently improved for years. The company’s Avast Free Antivirus is yet another that uses AI and machine learning to protect users from 21st century threats.

Avast’s CyberCapture is a main feature of its security suite, and it relies on three machine learning technologies:

Malware Similarity Search: Instantaneous categorization of massive samples of incoming malware.

Evo-Gen: Generic algorithm that finds short and generic descriptions of malware in large datasets.

MDE: Database that works on top of indexed data while allowing heavy parallel access.

With machine learning, CyberCapture can activate and immediately isolate the host system when a suspicious file is identified.

5. Windows Defender Security Center

Microsoft is leveraging AI to increase many of its security solutions, including the Windows Defender Security Center. With the company working on hundreds of millions of computers in a machine learning network, it is one of the best examples of AI-powered solutions. Windows Defender provides basic protection against a variety of threats, such as viruses, ransomware, Trojans, and more. It can also automatically detect other antivirus systems that may be installed, making it easy to remove old scanners.

One of the major benefits of using Windows Defender is that it can be seamlessly integrated with Microsoft’s cloud storage platform, OneDrive. This allows users to copy personal folders through Windows Defender into OneDrive to ensure they can still access them even if a virus locks the folders.

Here are some of the advantages of Windows Defender:

Phishing protection that automatically integrates with Microsoft’s browsers

Comprehensive parental control filter

Easy-to-use and pre-installed on Windows PC

Included in the Windows Operating system

6. Bitdefender

Bitdefender is one of the top solutions on the market due to its top virus detection rate. The AI-powered antivirus combines functionality, simplicity, and effectiveness to achieve solid antivirus protection. The software’s system optimization tools free up a lot of space on users’ systems and improve device performance. It also offers a solid VPN that is comparable to standalones, as well as parental control.

One of the top benefits of Bitdefender is that it uses a cloud-based virus engine. It also has some of the top web protections available, which enable it to detect risky websites better than many of the best built-in protections from Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

Here are some of the advantages of Bitdefender:

Advanced ransomware protection

Secure web browser for online payments

Webcam and microphone protection

System optimization

7. ESET Smart Security

Another solid AI-powered antivirus is ESET, which offers a secure antivirus suite with great virus detection rates. The software supports all types of systems, including macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux.

It’s top selling point is its virus scanner, which performs better than many others on the market. It also offers advanced diagnostic tools that provide a comprehensive overview of a user’s entire system, which can be used to generate security reports, enable lists of running processes, and more.

Here are some of the advantages of ESET:

Excellent virus detection rates

Firewall and anti-phishing

Advanced diagnostic tools

Password manager and parental controls

8. BullGuard

BullGuard offers one of the best anti-malware scanners on the market. To achieve this status, it relies on a malware database and machine learning to stop both known and zero-day threats with a 100% success rate.

One of the most popular features of the AI-powered antivirus is its game booster, which boosts CPU performance during GPU-intensive games. This allows players to continue gaming while leaving antivirus on.

BullGuard also offers identity theft protection which uses Experian’s international credit monitoring database. It can monitor various types of information, including home addresses, emails, credit cards, and driver’s license numbers.

Here are some of the advantages of BullGuard:

Game booster and PC tune-up

Firewall and network scanner

ID protection and VPN

Real-time protection with zero slowdown

9. Avira

Avira is a free AI-powered antivirus that utilizes several unsupervised and supervised machine learning techniques to carry out malware analysis. The cloud-based scanner is paired alongside various security tools for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android systems.

One of the top benefits of using Avira is that you gain access to its performance optimization tools, which work incredibly well at cleaning and speeding up devices. It also offers an excellent password manager that is comparable to many of the top standalone programs, and its web protections perform better than the built-in ones offered by Chrome or Firefox.

The powerful antivirus scanner compares files against a massive malware directory while also using heuristics to detect zero-day threats. Because it is based in the cloud, the scanner can offload the CPU-intensive processes, which helps speed up devices.

Here are some of the advantages of Avira:

Performance optimization tools

Firewall and web protections

One of the best free plans on the market

Very specific system scans

10. Norton 360

Closing out our list of the 10 best AI-powered antivirus programs is Norton 360, one of the most well-known names in cybersecurity. Norton 360 offers solid virus and malware protection software that uses a scanning engine powered by heuristic analysis and machine learning. It can scan, detect, and remove the newest types of malware. At the same time, it offers many advanced settings while still being easy-to-use.

Besides its complete protection from all malicious threats, Norton 360 also offers a variety of other security features, such as a password manager, a VPN with unlimited data, secure cloud storage, parental controls, and more.

Here are some of the advantages of Norton 360:

Cloud storage

Various pricing options

Ransomware protection

Secure firewall

Webcam protection and password manager