Crossword Cybersecurity : The skills shortage - what role Machine Learning and AI play in closing the gap?

With the continuous growth within the AI & Machine Learning fields, the question that often arises is: "which changes will people see in the working environment in terms of future career opportunities?"

Despite much of the hype and previous false dawn's in Machine learning and AI, these are areas that will continue to be extremely relevant, as organisations look to automate and use tools to increase automation and close the skills gaps.

As we continue to see the technological benefits from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are seeing an increasing number of tasks that were once performed by humans, being carried out by machines. These are the repetitive types of tasks that AI and Machine Learning are able to perform more efficiently.

As mentioned in (Daughney, 2019), many companies have begun taking advantage of AI and Machine Learning to streamline their business, so it is natural that this has started to cause worries around the future of the human workforce in some areas. On the basis of a survey reported in (Daughney, 2019), 75% of experts in the cybersecurity field, believe that AI and Machine Learning can facilitate and improve the quality of work in some areas, whereby repetitive tasks are automated and humans are left to use their experience and analytical skills where it can make a real difference. In addition, the use of AI and Machine Learning can help to improve security by increasing the volume of data that can be analysed - think how this could be applied to threat detection. This could reduce the likelihood and impact of a cyber event. AI and machine learning, therefore, are therefore able to assist in uncovering plug more security vulnerabilities (Daughney, 2019).

On the basis of a survey conducted by the SANS Institute, as mentioned in (Daughney, 2019), it turned out that the three most relevant key points for security companies are:

- More professional tools to conduct investigations

- More trained and professional staff to direct such investigations

- Efficient ways to find out information

One of the major challenges within Cybersecurity is a skill shortage and although AI and Machine Learning can help to address this, there is also a shortage of people with the relevant knowledge in AI and Machine learning to help utilise these technologies.

The World Economic Forum (Brown, 2019), suggests the arise of AI represents an opportunity that could lead to the creation of 133 million new jobs. In order for this to become reality, organisations and academic institutions will need to invent in ensuring that more young people have the relevant knowledge in AI in order to perform some of these new roles and to realise the benefits that opportunities in AI and Machine Learning could deliver.

In conclusion, the role of AI and machine learning will be both positive and a challenge to the status quo at the same time: AI and machine learning will lead to innovation which in turn will lead to more efficient and secure businesses. Naturally this will lead to job creation and cybersecurity professionals carrying out more interesting and less repetitive work. The challenge will be that in order for these opportunities to be realised, current and future professionals will need to ensure they have the relevant skills in order to take advantage of the opportunity. If this doesn't happen, the skills gap will persist and perhaps even widen.

References

Brown, T. (2019, October 11). The AI Skills Shortage. Retrieved from itchronicles: https://itchronicles.com/artificial-intelligence/the-ai-skills-shortage/

Daughney, T. (2019, July 2). How AI Can Help Secure Your Enterprise and Close the Skills Gap. Retrieved from Security Boulevard: https://securityboulevard.com/2019/07/how-ai-can-help-secure-your-enterprise-and-close-the-skills-gap/