AI is going to replace parts of IT work.
That does not mean it is going to replace the people: Okay, that's the question. People will me, will AI replace IT workers? But that does not mean it is going to replace the people who know how to use it, who know how to question it, who know how to secure it, and ⁓ know how to make sound decisions with it. So whenever people talk about AI and technology careers, the conversation usually becomes extreme. And in my case, I got asked by one of the people in the community regarding if AI would replace that person's job. And and I thought, well, you know what? Instead of answering that question directly for that person, I can answer that for the whole community from my perspective. One side says that AI is going to eliminate almost every job. The other side says that some that nothing is really going to change. And to be honest with you, I'm not sure I believe either one of them. AI is already changing the way that we work. Okay, AI is already inside of phones and it is already on call centers and so it's it's like ingrained into places. So it can summarize tickets, it can generate documentation, it can search knowledge bases for you, it can write basic scripts, it can suggest troubleshooting steps and you know analyze logs. Okay. Those are repetitive tasks that used to consume a lot of time. And if you've been in the workforce for any period of time, you'll find out that some of the work will absolutely require fewer people. But here's my honest take. And again, fight me in the comments. Completely okay with that. But IT, in my opinion, will never only be about completing a list of technical steps. Okay? Until we get to a point where everything can be answered by I AI. We're never gonna be without people inside of IT that can do the job. The real value shows up when documentation is wrong. The environment is different, or the customer is frustrated, the risk is unclear, two systems are contradicting each other, or a decision or consequences for the business depend on this. AI can generate an answer, but a professional still has to determine whether that answer is accurate, safe, appropriate. Complete and I will add ethical. Okay, because sometimes there's answers where yes, it's the correct answer, but logically a person would not make that answer, a professional wouldn't make that answer. that requires judgment. And in my opinion, it requires judgment, it requires context, it requires accountability. ⁓ are things that ⁓ to come in a human ha has to do. Let me give you a little bit of a story. While at SNHU, there have been times where I've had to go check answers and my thinking of something with AI. Okay. Now, as a student, you go through, you pull something, and you're like, that answer is wrong. here is why that answer is wrong, based off of this. Now I started to go through, I started to think about how systems are built. Okay. Systems like cloud infrastructure and networks, okay, they still need network identity, they still need access controls, ⁓ protection, monitoring, backup, like cost management and analysis and compliance. ⁓ think about something. If AI could do all of that already. Without a human being present, then companies would simply get rid of humans because you would have just said, Hey, I can let my whole workforce go. I don't need anybody to manage the network. I don't need anybody to decide on access points. We'll just let AI do it. That's not gonna happen. Because the moment that something goes outside of the way it's been programmed, and you don't have a human to bring it back into line. It's gonna go and give an answer that's not correct. So someone has to decide which model to access. So my point is: you are concerned about AI and you're in my community, ⁓ there are gonna be people that are gonna say, Hey, you shouldn't have to worry about work, AI is going to replace it. Maybe that might happen at some point, but that is not now. AI does not remove the need for like cybersecurity professionals and cloud professionals. It changes what good professionals need to know. So that brings me to my next point. Cybersecurity professionals to understand attack services. And with AI the attack surfaces are getting larger. So adversaries are using AI to move faster, they're creating phishing attempts, ⁓ automating reconnaissance and scaling their attacks now because they have the capability to do it. I remember when I first started at SNHU, I started thinking about what happens when the ⁓ People who do AI and these phishing scams when they start to go in and start to manipulate the data that's being presented to us. That time will come. It is not now, fully, because we still have systems that are able to defend against them. But if that were there and you were getting information that was placed there, for example, and it was completely wrong, and it was intentionally placed there. Okay, there still has to be a human that has to decide that part. We're not at a point where that part is is being ultimately changed. So for cloud and AI work ⁓ workloads, it's just creating different demands. ⁓ not sure that everything Let me speak about entry level IT because I remember when I was entry level IT. The entry level IT now, before, used to have to know like a lot of commands, and you used to know like there were quite a few steps to troubleshooting, ⁓ then like a lot of steps to scripts, and you know, those are things that AI can already help with. So let's think like a tier one, okay, or somebody who just came into a company. What will matter more now is you can go to AI and present A context and say this customer is reporting to me, let's just use IT side of things. This person is reporting to me that their computer just stopped turning on. Okay. What will matter more is whether that person can investigate, verify the issue, communicate what is happening, document it, take ownership of it, and move the situation forward. You could ask it, can you explain why the recommendations take sense? Okay. Can you recognize when AI is working? Can you protect sensitive information? Those are the things that are going to be important as you're developing your IT career. Understanding how to work alongside AI, okay? don't think the AI itself is the biggest threat. That's just my own opinion. Bigger threat may be another professional in your field who learns to use AI responsibly and becomes faster, clearer, and more effective when they use it and they adapt cleanly. That is going to be what you're going to be going up against. So will AI replace IT jobs? In my opinion, it will replace some of the task. It will reshape the roles. It may reduce demand for work that's repetitive, but that's already being done. But it will also create more systems that are built around the AI portion. So, in my opinion, do not compete against AI. Learn to work beside it, learn to question it, learn to secure it, it to increase your value that you bring. And I'll see you next time.