As employers look for AI talent in their data management and IT ranks, what’s a poor ol’ password-resetting, printer-kicking help desk professional to do?

Does a tech support pro need to become an AI master, too?

The short answer, according to IT practitioners who spoke with us: Yes.

AI-powered automation has hit the help desk, and the help desk pros, in turn, need to know what’s available, what’s possible, and what’s not.

One IT pro sees SOC analysts becoming “general analysts.”—BH

When it comes to network security, handling shadow AI should be simple. Just block any AI tools and associated sites that employees shouldn’t be accessing, and update that block list for anything new and suspicious that comes out.

Except it’s never that simple.

Jason Martin, co-founder and co-CEO of Permiso Security, said that while organizations are able to control access on professional devices, personal devices used for professional situations present difficulties for network security.

“You create an isolated, narrow tunnel for them to get in only from a compliant device, and then you monitor that device,” Martin said. “But I don’t know if everyone’s doing that, and I don’t see that happening everywhere.”

Why the arrival of agents makes the challenge even tougher.—CN

You might be surprised to find out that Tigran Sloyan, the founder of an online learning platform, didn’t like school.

He did love math, though. As a youngster in Armenia, Sloyan preferred regional, national, and international math competitions to the classroom.

“Math competitions sparked in me an interest in learning, because it felt more like a game and a competition—something that spoke to the competitive, disagreeable, and extroverted nature that I had,” Sloyan recalled.

Along an academic and professional path that included math medals, an MIT education, and stints at Big Tech companies like Oracle and Google, he saw problems with how talent is developed and discovered.

Now, as co-founder and CEO of AI-native skills platform CodeSignal, Sloyan sees a need for tech talent to rely less on degrees and résumés, and more on a clear answer to the question: What are your real skills?

…and are those skills in demand?—BH