Malik Haidar brings a wealth of battlefield experience from the front lines of multinational corporate security, where he has spent years decoding the strategies of sophisticated threat actors to protect global assets. As an expert who seamlessly blends deep technical analytics with high-level business intelligence, he offers a unique perspective on how the professional landscape must evolve to meet the challenges of an AI-driven world. Our discussion explores the recent pivot of major professional associations toward AI safety, the strategic necessity of cross-sector collaboration to define new job roles, and the practical tools being developed to help organizations hire and upskill talent for the next generation of cybersecurity demands.
Professional associations are increasingly being pushed to take a stand on AI safety and security. What does this shift toward active involvement signify for the future of the cybersecurity workforce?
The industry is witnessing a significant transformation where professional associations are moving from being passive observers of the skills gap to active architects of the workforce. Since Scott Beale assumed the role of CEO in December 2025, he has spent six months listening to the concerns of the global membership, finding that a vast majority want more vocal leadership in the AI space. The launch of the Cyber-AI Workforce Coalition on October 20 marks a definitive step toward helping practitioners manage the complexities of this new era. It is no longer enough to just track the number of professionals in the field; associations must now proactively shape the skills these professionals need to defend against AI-powered threats. This shift ensures that the cybersecurity workforce isn’t just growing in size, but also in its specific relevance to the technological shifts we are navigating right now.
The new coalition is described as a “vendor-neutral convener” for global professionals. How does bringing together diverse stakeholders like CISOs, HR managers, and government representatives change the approach to closing the skills gap?
Breaking down the silos between technical leadership and organizational management is the only way to solve the current hiring crisis and ensure long-term resilience. When you bring CISOs and HR managers into the same room, you start to bridge the gap between the technical requirements of a role and the language used to advertise it. By including standard-setting bodies like NIST and government representatives, the coalition ensures that any new frameworks are grounded in both regulatory reality and operational necessity. This collaborative approach allows us to listen directly to the biggest employers of cybersecurity practitioners and move the sector in a direction that is genuinely responsive to their day-to-day needs. It creates a vital feedback loop where the people managing the threats can directly influence how the next generation of talent is recruited, developed, and sustained.
There is a notable disparity in how different sectors, like banking and healthcare, describe AI-related roles. How will the proposed toolkits help standardize these job descriptions across the industry?
Currently, the way a bank describes an AI security job is vastly different from how a hospital might approach the same role, which creates massive confusion for candidates and recruiters alike. These toolkits, which the coalition aims to release by the spring of 2027, will provide a much-needed standardized language for defining what these new roles actually look like in practice. Instead of creating redundant new standards, the focus is on practical guidance for hiring, developing, and organizing talent at the intersection of AI and security. These tools will help answer the fundamental questions of how jobs are changing and how candidates should prepare for interviews in this high-stakes environment. By providing a pilot phase for companies to test these tools, we can refine them to ensure they are useful for everyone, from large multinational corporations to universities updating their curriculums.
With the development of a new AI security certification on the horizon, how should experienced practitioners approach the challenge of upskilling to meet these emerging demands?
For a professional who has been in the field for years, upskilling is less about learning a new tool and more about understanding a fundamental shift in the security landscape. The upcoming AI security certification will be a key part of the solution, helping to define the specific expertise that is now in such high demand across every major sector. Practitioners need to focus on how AI changes the risk profile of their organization and identify the specific skills that will make them indispensable in an AI-augmented environment. The coalition’s work will provide a roadmap for this transition, helping professionals identify the gaps in their own knowledge and the steps needed to fill them. By the time the first series of toolkits is available next year, we will have a much clearer picture of the critical skills required to defend against the next generation of threats.
What is your forecast for the AI security workforce?
I anticipate that over the next two years, the current uncertainty surrounding AI roles will give way to a much more structured and predictable hiring environment. As more companies adopt the toolkits and frameworks developed by the coalition, we will see a stabilization in job descriptions and a clearer path for career progression in AI security. By 2027 and 2028, AI proficiency will likely transition from a specialized “add-on” skill to a foundational requirement for almost every cybersecurity professional in the industry. This evolution will not only help close the existing global skills gap but will also ensure that the workforce is resilient enough to handle the sophisticated, AI-driven attacks that are becoming our new reality. Ultimately, this movement toward clarity will help both candidates and employers find common ground in a high-stakes environment where expertise is the only true currency.
