There is no question that introducing AI capabilities into your company’s environment offers advantages for most business functions, including efficiencies for your company’s Security team, their processes, and the tools they use. However, it’s important to balance the inherent risks with the potential gains before adding AI into your environment.
How To Start Unlocking Potential with AI
AI is ideally suited to handle repetitive, predictable tasks such as applying security updates, generating reports, and completing routine workstation health checks. As Senior Security Engineer at W. Capra, Adam Godwin, points out, “AI can identify and analyze technical issues that are routinely discovered during regular security installations, and then pull logs from different systems to submit tickets and route them to the appropriate team for timely repair.” Automating these time-consuming but necessary tasks liberates your skilled team members to focus on more challenging, problem-solving work.
In fact, many companies already use AI in limited ways, such as using ChatGPT to write scripts efficiently. An excellent way to determine what areas are most suited for AI integration in your environment is by reviewing what tasks your teams use Power-bi and Power-automate for today, and assessing how AI can enhance or automate these tasks.
Considerations Before Adding AI
Although the benefits of introducing AI components are appealing, consider the impact from a process, workload, cost and staffing point of view. Orest Resztinyk, Senior Security Engineer at W. Capra, explains, “AI will never be exactly right out of the box. It must be adjusted to your environment as what works in one place doesn’t necessarily work elsewhere.” He expands, “You need time to make adjustments for the AI to do what you want it to,” which requires effort and oversight from your team.
Further, each product ages and needs continual evaluation and tweaking for peak performance. AI is not a one-and-done deal that equates to a reduction in staffing. Your team must also maintain their critical thinking skillset to fix AI when it cannot solve a new or challenging issue. Ultimately, the learning curve when incorporating a new device with AI capabilities will not be as steep for your team as with other products, and getting your team up to speed faster is a selling point.
Knowing the information AI will access within your environment and the purpose of using that data is also essential. Without proper oversight, using AI may breach your security rules or present privacy implications for your organization.
Introduce AI with a Plan and Roadmap
Introducing any tool into your environment requires a clear integration strategy, aligning with the roadmap towards your long-term goals. Companies shouldn’t look for a security product specifically for its AI components. Instead, they should prioritize finding a product that meets their security needs first and then decide if AI components can enhance the product and meet their requirements.
When adding AI features into the mix, it is crucial to have a comprehensive plan that maps out how AI will use and interact with your data. “Be clear about what you want AI to do for you and what areas it should cover,” suggests Justin Davis, a Senior Security Engineer at W. Capra. A comprehensive plan when integrating AI into your operation provides a sense of security and control, ensuring that AI is used in a way that aligns with your business goals and respects your data privacy.
How W. Capra Can Help
W. Capra is well positioned to assist clients with evaluating their security product solutions and providing guidance on which option best fulfills their needs and fits in their margin. W Capra guides its customers with the best approach and structured plan to implement projects in their environment, providing the advice and best practices a company needs while highlighting concerns, advantages, and disadvantages.
For further information on evaluating your security solution and discussing how AI components can offer additional value for your organization, contact us at [email protected].