Page 337 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

Where Do Leadership and Technical Teams Disagree on AI-

Driven Network Security?

By Mitch Densley, Principal Solutions Architect at Opengear

Digital transformation brings new opportunities, but it also introduces complexity. Today’s Artificial
Intelligence (AI)-powered systems take in and produce data at a scale that would have been hard to
imagine just a few years ago. Digital transformation also introduces new vulnerabilities that jeopardize
network integrity, granting attackers access to subsets or supersets of data. These challenges demand
solutions and technologies that ensure network resilience, security and efficiency. While not a
cybersecurity silver bullet, AI helps humans spot needles in haystacks and enables them to prioritize risk
and incident response activities.
Although there is almost universal agreement that AI will play a crucial role in network security in the
future, leadership and technical teams have different perspectives about the nature of its implementation,
among other topics. A research report that surveyed 513 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief
Security Officers (CSOs), including 508 network engineers across Western countries, uncovered key
discrepancies between both groups concerning AI. Organizations must reconcile this misalignment to
fully realize AI’s potential in securing their networks.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 337
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