IT STRATEGY

Ed Zitron

Is AI a bubble? Is the government going to bail out Silicon Valley? What’s a reasonable expectation for AI ROI?

IT pros know many people with many different answers to these questions—and more.

One of the more prominent voices warning that AI is a bubble ready to collapse is Ed Zitron, CEO of EZ Primary Research. Zitron also writes the newsletter “Where’s Your Ed At” and hosts the Better Offline podcast.

We sat down with Zitron to talk about the business and future of the technology—as well as what we mean when we talk about AI.

When will the bubble pop?—EH

      

Sponsored By Bitwarden

Legacy security tools were built for human identities. Nice start, but modern ecosystems now include machines, coding assistants, and AI agents quietly accessing critical resources.

Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) research found 54% of organizations already have unsanctioned AI agents in use, and 47% have experienced an AI agent-related security incident.

Bitwarden is designed to secure access across employees, machines, and AI agents, helping businesses reduce risk as non-human identities multiply quickly. Instead of hoping every agent behaves, teams can bring access under control with visibility and governance built for the current attack surface.

Because “who gave the bot credentials?” should never be the opening line of an incident review ever again. Get secure now.

IT STRATEGY

Credit: Hayete Gallot

For Hayete Gallot, becoming EVP of security at Microsoft meant hitting the ground running—and taking to the air.

Gallot visited CEOs and customers around the world, she said, to understand their AI deployment questions: How do I govern an agent? Will I need another security analyst? What are the first steps to securely deploying AI?

The trip confirmed for Gallot that an AI security approach can’t be tied to one model.

“Security is a workflow. Models will come and go, but the workflows [are] what you need to build right,” Gallot told us.

It’s a challenging time to sign on to be a security leader, given how AI is evolving attack and defense tactics on a seemingly daily basis.

Figuring out that security workflow.—BH

      

CLOUD

Illustration: Emily Parsons, Photo: Getty Images

They’ve given you a number, and taken away your name—but as the Johnny Rivers song goes, agents need to beware when taking chances.

That’s also true in the tech space, where enterprises are increasingly adopting agentic AI despite the risks involved. Peter Mullen, chief marketing officer at Kore.ai, told IT Brew that his company’s recent Agent Productivity Index found AI deployment is leading to missed connections and a rise in rework and IT challenges.

“Enterprises are deploying AI, whether it’s models, whether it’s agentic AI, whether it’s solutions at the top of the food chain or the bottom of the food chain—and it is causing challenges, it is causing people to redo their work,” Mullen said. “All of this is burning efficiency, it’s costing money, and it’s making people, in some cases, rethink how they want to go about doing things.”

Same old story. Issues around AI agents, governance, and security have plagued the tech industry for the past year. AI-related security incidents are a chronic problem, leading to data leakage, insecurity, and IT team rework. Industry reports regularly reveal governance challenges that IT teams must overcome, including cross-channel inconsistencies that can lead to miscommunication.

Call to deploy.—EH

      

Sponsored By Eaton

Think you’re an IT ace? See how far you can get in Ace of Uptime, a scenario-based card game that’ll put you through your IT paces. Each scenario (or “hand”) mirrors everyday IT moments—and it’s up to you to decide how to solve it.

Let’s practice. You get an alert. It’s not urgent…yet. What’s your move?

🔌 Have you tried turning it off?

❓ Deploy first, ask later

📞 Dial 0188 999…

☕️ Tap into your endless coffee refills

patch notes

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 542,377. That’s how many individuals are reportedly impacted by the Centers Laboratory data breach. (SecurityWeek)

Quote: “This isn’t something that had really been studied before—how much AI content people are actually seeing…AI content is a tax on readers’ time.”—Max Spero, CEO of Pangram, said of AI-generated posts on social media (404 Media)

Read: Could detection and logging be the very thing that hinders an organization’s security? (Dark Reading)

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

Jobs

CollabWORK connects you to the hidden job market through IT Brew and other trusted channels. Browse roles curated specifically for this community by clicking through to the job board.