Why Cybersecurity Jobs Are Likely To Resist AI Layoff Pressures: Experts
While AI-driven automation seems poised to disrupt nearly all parts of the workforce, security analysts are poised to be a rare exception, cybersecurity experts tell CRN.
by Kyle Alspach, CRN
Even as AI-driven automation spreads to nearly all parts of the workforce — cybersecurity teams included — the field of cyber defense is one of the few likely to be spared from major layoffs going forward, according to security experts.
This is particularly the case for workers such as Security Operations Center (SOC) analysts, which are poised to remain in-demand even as they are expected to adopt GenAI and agentic technologies in a massive way, experts told CRN.
For modern cybersecurity teams and MSSPs, "there are so many things they have to do," said Naasief Edross, chief security strategist at St. Louis-based World Wide Technology, No. 9 on CRN'sSolution Provider 500 for 2025. "Any type of advantage you can give them, by using machines to help them defend [their organizations], is only going to allow them to focus on different sets of problems."
The notion that SOC analyst jobs and other roles requiring security expertise might be at risk would have been unthinkable just a few years ago — making the sudden shift to discussions around AI-driven redundancy for humans in the SOC all the more startling.