AI is now woven into every part of cybersecurity operations. It analyses behaviour, identifies anomalies, and increasingly, takes action on its own. It’s faster, tireless, and in many cases more consistent than any analyst could be. But with that progress comes a harder question: how much decision-making are we prepared to give away?
There’s no escaping the squeeze. Demand is rising, budgets are flat, and no one’s in the mood for another “game-changing” announcement. People have heard so many promises of ‘once in a generation’ transformation that hype doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
There’s a moment every organization faces when it has to stop pretending the cracks aren’t there. The systems that don’t quite talk to each other. The processes everyone works around. The decisions that were right once — but no longer are.
In the context of limited investment, socio-economic disruption, and accelerated demands, the CIO mandate is clear: do more, deliver faster, spend less. Clear. But impossible.
AI has become the defining force in cybersecurity, not because it’s new, but because it’s everywhere. It’s now threaded through every layer of the threat landscape: attackers use it to accelerate their operations, while defenders rely on it to hold the line.
Emerging technology has an irresistible pull. Every CIO knows the feeling: a new platform promises efficiency, a new algorithm claims intelligence, a new vendor insists you’re falling behind. The pressure to adopt can be immense – from boards, from peers, from the market itself.
AI is arriving in universities at remarkable speed, but deciding how it should be used is proving far harder to match.
That was one of the clearest messages from the recent DIG25 roundtable hosted by Roc Technologies and the University of Reading – a conversation that surfaced not just what AI is doing in Higher Education, but what AI is demanding of it.
Progress shouldn’t feel this hard. Yet for many organisations, despite years of digital investment, transformation can feel like driving with the handbrake on. The ambition and tools are there but something unseen slows everything down.
It’s often said that Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Whether or not he said it, the point stands. Organisations talk endlessly about change, yet so often repeat the same mistakes.
