AI and Cybersecurity: A Threat to Jobs or an Opportunity to Evolve?

With Anthropic CEO’s rather bold prediction that in 3-6 months AI will be generating 95% of code what does this mean for hands-on Cybersecurity roles ? The disruptive wave AI is unleashing, is catching most off guard. Cyber teams included!

So what will be the human role in an AI augmented Cybersecurity Function?

For Cybersecurity teams coming under even more pressure to deliver more with less, AI does present a real opportunity. Consider your most labour intensive and repetitive activities – what can AI do for you, versus what role should your actual team members play as Managers (of real and AI employees) or a ‘human in the middle’ to prompt or verify output.

Some Cybersecurity functions spring immediately to mind : .

• Third Party Risk Management – throw out the manual spreadsheets and let an AI enabled capability harvest information from available vendor artefacts (e.g ISO27001 and SOC 2 reports) and then create tailored questions for vendors to respond to – all driven by an AI augmented workflow.
• Responding to Clients, Auditors or Regulators on security posture – (the reverse of the vendor example), let an AI enabled capability generate your responses using available data.
• Penetration Testing – AI enabled capabilities will focus the penetration test function on ‘crown jewel’ assets – 80% of testing will be automated with Agenic AI enabled tooling.
• Alerting and Monitoring – AI will likely displace the role of the Level 1 SOC Analyst in its entirety – there will most likely be a single expert layer needed in the team.
• Identity and Access Management – Downsize the number of analysts in your IAM team and let AI-based IAM systems automate user provisioning and offboarding, access requests and entitlement management, ensuring that employees have the right access (least privilege) for their roles. Add AI enabled automation into the UAR (User Access Review) process to minimise human error, spreadsheet fatigue and simplify decision making.
• Ethical Phishing Campaigns – Create hyper targeted and personalised email or social media lures to really test how ‘on the ball’ the employee base is to phished attacks.
• Secure Code Review – As with most  coding and testing roles this will almost certainly all be fully automated with AI enabled capabilities.
• Executive Reporting and Metrics Delivery – a time consuming task – let AI create initial drafts for you to add a personalised overlay and spot patterns in the metrics that may be less visible to the human eye.

These are just a few examples. In every cyber domain, AI will amplify and augment capabilities to enhance both efficacy and efficiency. However, this introduces an immediate challenge—if cyber roles are being elevated, how do newcomers to the industry gain the necessary foundational experience to grow?

Businesses will increasingly rely on highly skilled cybersecurity professionals who can design architecture and develop AI-enabled processes that enhance security while aligning with business objectives. As AI takes on more operational tasks, the focus will shift toward strategic expertise, adaptability, and innovation in cybersecurity roles.

Partner with NuroShift to unlock the full potential of AI-driven transformation and navigate your journey to AI maturity with confidence. Follow NuroShift for more AI-powered cybersecurity insights: https://lnkd.in/eZESYHr6

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