đ AI Is Not Killing Cybersecurity Jobs â Itâs Raising the Bar
Cloud is the New LAN. But Thatâs Just the Beginning.
đ AI Is Not Killing Cybersecurity Jobs â Itâs Raising the Bar
Cloud is the New LAN. But Thatâs Just the Beginning.
By Evan Lutz | BowTiedCyber
This week, I posted the following:
âNetwork+ is still relevant â but itâs got maybe 24 months left on the clock.
Legacy hardware is fading. The cloud is eating networking.
If youâre not pivoting toward AWS, Azure, or Cisco certs, youâre studying for a past that wonât exist.
Cloud is the new LAN.â
A reply came in from @AdmV0rl0n that kicked off a surprisingly constructive exchange:
âThe lower tier is gone. Itâs going to be eaten by AI/auto configuration and handling. The industry is NOT going to sustain numbers of jobs as it has.â
I pushed back, hard.
âStrongly disagree. AI is going to make more jobs in cybersecurity than it takes away.â
For the record, this guy is AMAZING (just met him) and this is not a slight against him in the slightest. In fact, youâll see many of his claims were RIGHT and I respect him a ton for that.
This escalated into a mini case study in competing visions for the future of cybersecurity. So I asked my AI assistant to audit both arguments using industry reports, labor data, and AI trend forecasts from 2024 and 2025.
Hereâs the breakdown.
đ 10 Key Claims Ranked by Likelihood
I wanted to figure out who was right. And I was willing to be wrong. So I imported our entire conversation into my AI assistant and ran Deep Research. Each claim was evaluated for its viability based on the best available evidence. Use the percentage as a directional probability:
Sources: gartner.com, isc2.org, cyberseek.org, bls.gov, techcrunch.com, aws.amazon.com, secureworld.io
đ§ So Who's Right?
Short-Term: AdmV0rl0n is right.
The bottom of the market is getting hollowed out. Helpdesk roles, Tier-1 SOC analysts, and generic tech support are increasingly handled by AI-driven playbooks and automated tools.
Long-Term: Iâm right.
The cybersecurity landscape is expanding in complexity. We need defenders who can secure cloud-native infrastructure, harden AI models, validate outputs, and investigate machine-augmented threats. That work doesnât disappear â it evolves.
This isnât job loss. Itâs job elevation.
đ The New Baseline for "Entry-Level" Cyber
Remember the good old days? Like in 2022? When anyone could get a few certs and land a $60k remote job in 6 weeks?
Those days are gone. And I hate to say it (truly), but if you followed me THEN and DIDNâT ACT, all I can say is: I tried to tell you.
It pays to act.
But I canât tell you how to live your life, and Iâm not your dad. My goal is to help people who are ready to be helped. Maybe you werenât then. But maybe you are now.
Now the market is changing. And Iâm changing with it.
Letâs call it what it is:
The entry-level bar has moved up.
Not eliminated. Just redefined.
The new frontline doesnât start with resetting passwords â it starts with reviewing Splunk dashboards, tuning cloud policies, scripting enrichments, and understanding what ânormalâ looks like in a hybrid SIEM.
At BowTiedCyber, weâve trained hundreds to meet that bar with this clear framework:
𧹠Network+ â still your baseline cert (for now)
âď¸ AZ900 or AWS CCP â shows you âdo cloudâ
đ Splunk Core User â gets you into the SIEM seat
đ§ Linux, Python, Traffic Analysis â the tools of your trade
IN ADDITION:
âď¸ Cloud Security as a Default, Not a Niche
The market isnât asking if youâve âseen the cloudâ â itâs assuming you live in it. IAM misconfigs, privilege drift, and log visibility across Azure/AWS are now starter tasks. If you can't audit policies or spot misused roles, you're not ready.
đ¤ AI-Enhanced Analysts Are the New Norm
AI is not the enemy â itâs your co-pilot. You need to know how to work alongside SOAR tools, script enrichments, and parse AI-generated summaries critically. The analyst of 2025 doesnât just respond to alerts â they curate, correlate, and refine the response logic itself.
đ Playbook Execution Is Table Stakes â Logic Building Is Gold
Itâs not enough to follow Tier 1 runbooks. You need to understand why each step exists â and how to rewrite those playbooks when attackers adapt. If you're not thinking in MITRE TTP chains and IOC enrichment flows, you're behind.
đ§ Cognitive + Strategic Fluency > Just Technical Chops
The best analysts donât just know commands â they know how to think. Chain of Thought. Chain of Reasoning. Bias Mitigation. These arenât buzzwords â theyâre how you survive when a âweird loginâ turns out to be lateral movement from a zero-day.
And thatâs exactly why we rebuilt the pipeline. Not just to teach commands â but to train thinkers.
đŻ 90 Days to Hire-Readiness. 36 Weeks to Market Mastery.
Thatâs our tiered model â not some AI-proof fantasy. Itâs built on upskilling with automation, not against it.
đĽ Bottom Line
Yes, the lower-tier grunt work is disappearing.
No, cybersecurity isnât dying. Itâs leveling up.
The winners will be those who work with AI, not those who are replaced by it.
If youâre preparing for a world that no longer exists, AI will eat your job.
But if you're building for where cyber is headed â cloud-native, automation-aware, and threat-smart â you'll be the one feeding AI its inputs.
The defenders are not being replaced.
Theyâre being promoted.
đ§ Want to be ready for that future?
Then book a call for the BowTied Two-Step Bootcamp
And if you did miss the last train, donât miss this one.
This is your last shot.
Helpdesk is going away.
But itâs still here for quick cash.
Use it as a LAUNCHPAD and GET OUT before it takes you under.
Welcome to the world of rapidly evolution due to AI.
Itâs coming whether you act or not.
Donât miss it.
Registration is OPEN to the public.
First come first serve and seating is limited. We had over 30 preregistrations (near our total max limit). Priority now give to those who book the soonest calls.
Book a call here:
https://twostep.bowtiedcyber.com
Or subscribe for real-world breakdowns like this.
Evan Lutz is the founder of BowTiedCyber, a top cybersecurity bootcamp designed to take you from zero to hire-ready in 90 days. His frameworks have helped 115+ students land their first job â no degree required.