KnowBe4 is set to explore the growing challenge of determining what organisations can trust in the age of AI at an exclusive cybersecurity briefing during Leeds Digital Festival 2026.
Taking place on 1 October, CyberSecure Leeds: Who Do You Trust Now? Human Judgement in the Age of AI will examine how the growing role of AI agents in business processes is changing the security landscape and creating new questions around identity, decision making and human oversight.
At the centre of the event will be an unusual real-world experiment from Javvad Malik, lead CISO advisor at KnowBe4, which started with a disputed parking ticket. During the experiment, Malik explored how AI could be used to help create convincing documentation and establish a digital presence that automated systems subsequently treated as legitimate, all within 48 hours.
While the experiment started with a relatively everyday scenario, KnowBe4 believes it highlights a much broader security concern. As organisations integrate AI into workflows, approvals and other business processes, systems may be placed in a position where they are effectively helping to determine what is legitimate and what should be trusted.
This becomes particularly significant as the digital workforce expands beyond human employees to include AI agents capable of accessing information, interacting with applications and influencing decisions.
“AI is rapidly becoming part of how organisations decide what is real, what is legitimate and what should be trusted,” said Malik.
“The problem is that AI can be extremely convincing without necessarily being right. As organisations give these systems greater influence over business processes, we need to think carefully about where human judgement fits and how attackers could exploit that trust. The workforce is now a combination of people and AI agents, and our approach to security has to reflect that reality.”
Phishing Beyond the Inbox
The briefing will also look at how the social engineering landscape is changing as attackers adopt AI-generated content and increasingly target users across multiple communications channels. James Dyer, head of threat intelligence at KnowBe4, will provide an update on current phishing activity, including the growth of phishing-as-a-service and the ways attackers are adapting their techniques to bypass existing security controls.
The session will examine why organisations can no longer treat phishing solely as an email security problem, with social engineering attacks capable of moving across different platforms and exploiting the trust employees place in digital communications.
The event coincides with the beginning of Cybersecurity Awareness Month and forms part of Leeds Digital Festival, which runs from 21 September to 2 October with more than 200 technology events taking place across the region.
The KnowBe4 briefing will run from 8:30am to 11:00am at the company’s Leeds office and is aimed at CISOs, IT leaders, security practitioners and business decision makers.
Attendance is free but limited to 30 places, with advance registration required through the Leeds Digital Festival event programme. Interested delegates can register here: https://web.cvent.com/event/96b273cf-5129-4734-b54c-0dfd0a38aa61/summary
