AI is rewriting the CISO job description

Editor's Note: This is Part 3 of How AI is Changing Enterprise Security, a three-part video interview with Swamy Kocherlakota, executive vice president, agentic AI startup at Zscaler, produced jointly by Zscaler and FastForward. This installment looks at The new job of the CISO.

AI is reshaping the CISO role, shifting the security focus from infrastructure to applications and data, and potentially redefining who is best equipped to lead it. That was the message from Swamy Kocherlakota in a video interview released this week.

"Historically, the CISO was focused around network and systems and infrastructure, they were operating with the heads of the infrastructure and head of networking," Kocherlakota told FastForward in the interview.

AI has changed the focus of the conversation and who the CISO interacts with more regularly. Increasingly, the job will involve interacting with the chief AI officer, chief risk officers and other technology leaders to make sure applications and data are secure as companies adopt AI.

If he's right, that means companies have to look for CISOs with a different skill set and better communication skills. "So, in my mind, the CISO now has to evolve to become much more application-centric, data-centric, above and beyond the infrastructure centricities that they have. So, there's a new breed of CISOs that will come in as a result of this," he said.

Disclosure: Zscaler paid me a fee to produce these videos in partnership with FastForward. As with every interview I publish or moderate, the conversation and editing were subject to the same strict editorial standards that govern all of my work. Zscaler did not get to see this article prior to publication. See my editorial guidelines on the FastForward About page for more information.