Alex Levy, CISO of BNSF Railways, on the Hidden People Risk of AI Dependence

Alex Levy, CISO of BNSF Railways and the inaugural TIME + Commvault CISO of the Year, discusses what he sees as one of the biggest risks facing companies moving quickly into AI: people risk. As AI becomes embedded in coding and other forms of work, Alex explains how organizations can create a growing dependence on the technology. Using the example of experienced developers coding with AI for several months and then suddenly losing access to it, he highlights the potential for previously developed skills to decline and for AI dependence to become a significant business risk. KEY TAKEAWAYS 📌 People risk is a major consideration as organizations move rapidly into AI 📌 People still underpin much of the logic and prompting behind AI 📌 Regular reliance on AI can create dependence on the technology 📌 AI-assisted coding could affect skills that developers have built over years or decades 📌 Removing AI after sustained use can expose how dependent people have become on the technology 📌 AI adoption should be considered not only from a productivity perspective, but also from a business risk perspective 📌 Organizations need to consider the human impact of AI as they accelerate adoption TL;DR Alex Levy, CISO of BNSF Railways and the inaugural TIME + Commvault CISO of the Year, explains why rapid AI adoption can create a new kind of people risk. As workers become increasingly dependent on AI, previously developed skills may decline, turning dependence on the technology into a potential risk for the business. WHO IS THIS FOR? 📌 CISO 📌 CIO 📌 Security Leaders 📌 Cybersecurity Practitioners 📌 Technology Executives 📌 AI Leaders 📌 IT Leaders 📌 Software Development Leaders 📌 Engineering Leaders 📌 Risk Management Leaders 📌 Cybersecurity Strategy Leaders 📌 Business Resilience Leaders 📌 Organizations Adopting AI FAQ Q: What is the people risk associated with AI? A: Alex Levy argues that people remain central to the logic and prompting behind AI. As organizations become more reliant on AI, employees can also become increasingly dependent on the technology, creating a new source of business risk. Q: Can reliance on AI affect employee skills? A: Alex uses software development as an example. If experienced developers rely exclusively on AI for coding over an extended period and that capability is then removed, their existing skill sets may have declined considerably. Q: Why can AI dependence become a business risk? A: According to Alex, sustained reliance on AI can create dependence on the technology. If people become less capable of performing work without it, that dependence can introduce significant risk to the business. Q: What role do people still play in AI? A: Alex emphasizes that people continue to underpin much of the logic and prompting that occurs within AI, making the human element an important part of AI risk. Q: What should CISOs consider as companies adopt AI? A: Alex’s comments highlight the importance of considering not only what AI enables, but also how reliance on AI can affect human skills and create technology dependencies across the business. Q: What can a chaos experiment reveal about AI dependence? A: Alex proposes an experiment in which developers use only AI to code for several months and then lose access to that capability. The scenario is designed to expose how sustained AI use could affect existing skills and create dependence on the technology. #CISO #Cybersecurity #ArtificialIntelligence #SecurityLeadership #AI #CyberResilience #CyberInnovation