The future of IT is AI
I’ve seen a few "giant shifts" in my career, but AI is different. It isn’t just another layer of the stack; it’s a fundamental transformation. AI isn't going away any more than the automated loom, the steam engine, or the nuclear reactor did. It is a permanent fixture of our reality.
The career implications for IT professionals are massive. It’s difficult to predict the granular details, but one thing is certain: AI won’t take your job, but a professional using AI will.
The 80% Productivity Gain
At a recent **Cyber Hive** meetup, Nawab Kabir presented a GPT built on NIST NICE documentation. The data is eye-opening for anyone in broad, high-pressure roles. https://elkqr.link/jcAbCayN
Job Title: Solo Security Lead
Estimated Weekly Time Saved: 24–32 hours
Effective Productivity Gain: ~60–80%
This role is one of the highest AI-leverage cybersecurity roles because:
Extremely broad task surface
High documentation burden
High alert volume
Limited delegation ability
This isn't just "speeding up" work; it’s compressing it. If we factor in frameworks like OpenClaw (which I’m currently evolving at home, though not yet for production), these numbers might actually be conservative.
The Funhouse Mirror: Documentation and Debt
One of the biggest lies in IT is that everyone has up-to-date documentation. The real answer is zero. We write policies that no one reads and documentation that rots the moment it's saved.
Industry experts like Martin Fowler have noted that AI acts as a "funhouse mirror". it reflects back the good, the bad, and the ugly of your entire pipeline. If your processes are broken, AI won't fix them; it will simply act as a debt accelerator, generating "technical debt" at the speed of light.
That is why my NCM project is focused on the foundation: automating NIST evaluations. We need the AI to not just write the policy, but to live inside the workflow. We are building the "Bullet Train" a platform where the path to deployment is fast *because* it is safe by default.
From Coder to Supervisory Engineer
We often hear that AI is most punishing to entry-level roles, but I disagree. It transforms everyone. Look at LARGflow: it has no "AI brain" inside it yet, but it was fully AI-coded. That saved thousands of dollars in costs.
The secret wasn't just "prompting"; it was Test-Driven Development. TDD is the strongest form of prompt engineering. By defining the tests first, I moved from being a "coder" to a Supervisory Engineer. My job wasn't to write every line of syntax, I designed the architecture.
The Asymmetric War: Red vs. Blue
We don't have the luxury of "opting out" because our adversaries have already opted in.
FuzzForge uses AI to find exploitable bugs at scale.
Phishing now uses AI templates that bypass traditional detection with ease.
Threat Actors scan infrastructure 24/7 with automated precision.
For decades, hackers only needed to know one attack path, while defenders had to know everything. This created a dashboard hell that is too complex for humans to manage. Without AI, the defender's position is completely asymmetric.
The Reality: AI in security is no longer about innovation; it’s about parity. If you aren't using it, you aren't just behind; you're defenseless.
The Bottom Line: Reclaiming the Signal
The signal-to-noise ratio in IT has been broken for a decade. Automation was the first step, but AI is the leap that allows us to find the needle in the haystack before the haystack is on fire.
The future of IT isn't just about "faster" computers or higher token counts. It’s about eliminating the paperwork and the endless burnout, replacing it with the ability to breathe and build the next generation of applications.