AI can’t fix cybersecurity’s hiring problem - Help Net Security

Oh, marvellous. The SANS 2026 Cybersecurity Workforce Survey has delivered the year's least surprising revelation: AI can't fix the industry's hiring problem. Demand for specialists in new roles has more than doubled, which is precisely the kind of growth metric that makes executives salivate and HR managers sob into their ergonomic keyboards. And a whole 54% of respondents have AI security policies? Fantastic. Because what the cybersecurity world really needs is another policy document gathering dust while the actual talent pool evaporates.

The survey essentially confirms that organisations have been buying AI tools as a substitute for hiring actual people — a strategy that has worked about as well as using a sieve for a lifeboat. The doubling of demand for niche roles tells us that enterprises finally realise they need humans who understand AI-specific threats, but instead of training or hiring them, they'll likely invest in yet another AI-powered alert system that screams at 3 AM about nothing. The 54% with AI policies will soon learn that 'having a policy' is not the same as 'having capability' — a distinction that will become painfully clear when their AI firewall politely asks an attacker for credentials rather than blocking them.

So here we are: demand up, supply stagnant, and AI positioned as both the cause of the problem and the ineffective solution. The cybersecurity industry has successfully recreated the same old resource crunch, but now with added jargon and higher stakes. Cheers — another round of 'we need to talk about the talent gap' meetings is surely just what the sector needed. Perhaps next year's survey will ask about the alarming rise in cynicism among security professionals. I'm sure the results will be... enlightening.