Harnessing AI to Strengthen Cyber Teams Amidst Talent Shortage

In a rapidly evolving and increasingly intelligent threat landscape, the cybersecurity industry grapples with a staggering gap between overworked security teams and the protection modern enterprises require, leaving space for cyber attacks to creep in through the cracks. Threat actors are tapping into more complex methods powered by emerging technologies, like AI, and humans alone are no match for the battle. For companies to meet the moment and address these threats more proactively, it is crucial that both security teams and aspiring professionals stay ahead of the curve by leaning into AI as a valuable ally to bolster human capabilities and allow teams to focus on more complex tasks.

Employees are Burnt Out and Threats Don’t Rest

According to recent research, the cybersecurity sector is faced with approximately 4.8 million job vacancies globally, with a talent gap of nearly 550,000 in the U.S. alone. Amidst an increasingly persistent threat landscape, the depletion of cyber talent opens companies up for increased risk of vulnerability and break-ins. There was a 72% increase in the number of global data compromises between 2022 and 2023, and a 10% increase in data breach costs in 2024.

With an ever-present AI attack force, numbers are anticipated to soar. Threat actors are on the cusp of employing AI to intelligently locate and analyze targets, personalize tactics based on perceived vulnerabilities, and amplify the persistence of their attempts. Security teams continue handling an ever-increasing number of issues due to a growing attack surface, as their organizations deploy various pure and hybrid cloud business applications. As a result, these teams are seeing the detrimental effects of inefficient processes, alert fatigue, and ultimately employee burnout.

AI Enhancing Human Capital Through Automation and Streamlined Remediation

Adversaries are already utilizing emerging technologies to increase their firepower, and human labor alone simply cannot keep up, especially amidst this talent shortage. Furthermore, in order to combat the high volume of incoming threats, security teams must fight fire with fire. In fact, the number of organizations using security AI and automation extensively increased by nearly 11% from 2023 to 2024. By automating workflows and streamlining detection and response processes through the adoption of AI, security teams and organizations can maximize human potential.

Hyperautomation is enabling the autonomous SOC, which streamlines security operations, improves efficiency, and accelerates incident response. Together, they automate routine tasks, intelligently prioritize, investigate, and remediate alerts around-the-clock, and enrich case data with contextual information and threat intelligence. By recognizing and responding to high-volume, low-complexity tasks, such as phishing and repetitive security incidents, AI allows security teams to pivot their energy from mundane monitoring toward more complex defensive endeavors.

Organizational AI adoption has increased from 20% in 2017 to 72% in 2024, and these numbers are predicted to rise. Myriad Fortune 500 companies have successfully taken the leap into AI automation, cutting down time spent on manual and repetitive security tasks from hours to minutes. Within one month of adopting AI workflows, the world’s leading online car reseller was able to automate 41 different runbooks. Hyperautomation and the autonomous SOC cannot replace human value, but they can redirect and amplify it to maximize efficiency.

Breaking the Barrier

A paradox many aspiring professionals are faced with is that despite the talent shortage, entry-level cybersecurity roles have become difficult to find and even harder to obtain. From a recent study of 15,852 global cybersecurity practitioners, nearly one third of participants reported that their security teams had no entry-level professionals. How can we foster the next generation of cybersecurity professionals and bridge the talent gap if we do not invest in their growth? Likewise, how can aspiring professionals better prepare themselves for this AI-driven threat landscape and distinguish themselves as viable assets as they enter the job market amidst this AI-dominated world?

1.Upskilling Young Professionals

Approximately 90% of organizations are faced with security team skills gaps, and over one third attribute this gap to a lack of AI expertise. In order to keep up with the demands of AI threats, companies need to invest in not only incoming professionals, but the entirety of their workforce. It is critical that companies build AI training modules for current and future employees to better prepare them for the modern threat landscape. Using AI to teach AI, companies can train large language models to coach new employees based on an analysis of what high-performing employees do. This is already being adopted within the sales sector, where AI agents can listen to a young salesperson, automatically generate analysis, and coach them in real time. Adopting this AI-mentorship approach would bring employees up to speed without expending human resources for training, and ultimately strengthen security team effectiveness.

2.What Aspiring Professionals Need to Know

At the same time, incoming cybersecurity professionals should increase their chance of success and likelihood of being hired by taking the time to develop certain skills before approaching the job market.

AI literacy: Aspiring professionals need to understand how AI functions, as well as its potential impacts and limitations within the cybersecurity industry.
Responsible AI use: AI is a double edged sword, as it presents as many risks as it does opportunities. It is crucial to understand both how and when to use AI as an ally.
Continuous learning: The cybersecurity landscape is rapidly transforming, thus it is important to stay ahead of the curve by constantly self-educating on new innovations as well as threats.

A New Defense Landscape

By integrating hyperautomation and the autonomous SOC to drive speed and more effective resource allocation, as well as introducing intelligent AI training programs, companies can eliminate employee burnout, optimize their defense systems, and narrow the talent gap. With threats becoming increasingly innovative as the cybersecurity industry hurries to catch up, it is imperative for security teams to reinforce their repertoire and transform their potential with the adoption of AI.