Pressure is mounting to cut jobs in favor of AI. Here’s why you shouldn’t. – Source: www.csoonline.com

Security giant CrowdStrike announced via an official SEC filing last month that it plans to cut approximately 500 jobs — about 5% of its global workforce — as part of a strategic shift toward greater reliance on artificial intelligence to drive efficiency and growth.

The security vendor expects to continue to hire in key strategic areas despite cuts to other parts of its business, which it expects will cost up to $53 million.

While a CrowdStrike representative denied the company is using AI to replace employees, other technology firms, such as financial services firm Klarna and Amazon, have cited AI-driven efficiencies as a direct rationale for workforce reductions. Such news reports come amid rising pressure from company boards to push CEOs to replace IT workers with AI.

But experts urge CISOs to push back against using AI technologies as a means of reducing headcount, instead arguing that the technology is better deployed in boosting capacity rather than as a means to cut costs.

Doing so would provide CISOs a powerful means for combatting a rising security team scourge: burnout.

“AI is a powerful enabler in security but framing it as a justification for job cuts may overlook its true value,” says Robert Phan, CISO at cloud-based directory platform JumpCloud. “In reality, cybersecurity talent is still in short supply, and the real challenge facing many CISOs is burnout rather than redundancy.”

Phan added: “Thoughtfully deployed, AI can help alleviate pressure on stretched teams by handling repetitive, low-level tasks like log analysis, alert triage, anomaly detection, and policy enforcement, freeing up human analysts to focus on more strategic, high-impact work.”

The bigger picture

Phan’s company JumpCloud views AI as an augmentation layer rather a replacement to skilled cybersecurity staff. In doing so, Phan stresses the importance of ensuring that AI tools are explainable, auditable, and align with existing governance structures, including strict adherence to data privacy requirements.

“It’s helping our teams move faster, spot anomalies earlier, and focus their energy where it counts,” Phan says. “That’s the path forward for CISOs; not cost-cutting, but capacity-building.”

Kevin Quirk, founder of boutique consultancy AI Bridge Solutions, cited the example of IBM, which automated large parts of its HR processes without eliminating roles. “They reinvested in high-value talent, increasing productivity and strengthening their workforce,” he says.

Quirk argued that job functions in a fast-moving sector like IT inevitably change. While vibe coding and generative AI are reshaping software development, coders are still required in system design and quality assurance, among many other functions. “These aren’t reductions in value, they’re shifts in how human capability is applied,” Quirk says.

CISOs should take this to heart and shape clear AI strategies with strong governance and human oversight, Quirk advises.

“For CISOs, the takeaway is clear: AI can offload repetitive, manual security tasks like log analysis, alert triage, and compliance reporting, giving teams space to focus on strategic threats and risk,” he says.

Short-term savings, long-term consequences

Other experts expressed skepticism that CrowdStrike’s planned job cut are directly related to greater use of AI since the vendor has heavily relied on machine learning and similar technologies since its founding.

“CrowdStrike’s layoffs are likely very little to do with AI; it is just sold as that,” Jaco Vermeulen of boutique consultancy BML tells CSO. “As per their quarterly investors report, it is much more likely that they are closing a non-profitable business function/division or outsourcing it.”

Regardless of CrowdStrike’s intentions, the drum beat to replace headcount with AI across the industry will likely get louder in the coming months. Professor Paulo Cardoso do Amaral, a business strategist and author of Business Warfare, warned that downsizing may offer “short-term savings,” but only at the “potential cost of long-term resilience.”

“True value lies in how AI can augment human capability, driving greater effectiveness and innovation,” Cardoso says.

Security teams are not merely operational but “repositories of irreplaceable know-how” so experienced cybersecurity professionals “must remain at the core of any serious cybersecurity strategy,” he adds.

Moreover, CSOs should focus on leveraging AI to free up employees for creative and strategic thinking, rather than viewing it as a wholesale replacement for human expertise — which remains integral to security operations.

“While today’s AI offers immense value in areas such as task automation and information synthesis, it cannot, at least for now, replicate human intuition and experience,” says Bruce Jenkins, CISO at application security testing firm Black Duck. “AI undeniably surpasses humans in knowledge access and speed of analysis, but applying that knowledge in a way that is both contextually appropriate and consistently sound requires experience and judgment.”

Jenkins adds: “Although AI will likely continue refining these capabilities with increasingly low error rates, organizations should not evaluate every role, particularly in cybersecurity, solely on the cost comparison between AI and human labor.”

CISOs should carefully assess where AI can enhance operations, whether through automation, efficiency, or by augmenting subject matter expertise, Jenkins argues.

“Those who push too far too soon may come to regret their choices, especially when a breach analysis highlights that AI didn’t fail in its assessment but in its recommended course of action,” Jenkins warns.