Haris Pylarinos is the founder and CEO of Hack The Box, a leading cyber readiness platform for the AI era.
AI readiness, rather than AI itself, will be the next competitive advantage. Here’s why.
If you’re of a certain age, you may remember the mid-90s at the peak of the internet era. While kids played Pac-Man at the arcade, organizations began connecting online and found an easier path to compete in the global economy through email and instant access to information. As internet access spread, the novelty faded.
But a few organizations leveraged the internet for more than connection. Some reimagined their operations, and others used it to transform entire industries. Netflix challenged Blockbuster in entertainment. Priceline let consumers book travel without an agent. The technology became ubiquitous, but what those companies did with it created competitive advantage.
AI is about to repeat history.
The Readiness Gap
Advanced AI models, cloud infrastructure and security tools are becoming commonplace. Tools like Replit and Lovable let non-developers create whatever applications they imagine using natural language. That opens endless possibilities for innovation. But imagine employees across an organization creating their own digital tools to solve discipline- or department-specific challenges.
This is one of the many challenges keeping chief information security officers (CISOs) up at night. We’re past contemplating AI adoption; it’s happening. So how do leaders coach employees to use it responsibly and productively while maintaining security and enforcing governance across the organization?
The competitive advantage lies in building the capability to leverage AI creatively and safely. I call this the Readiness Economy, where leadership development, governance, operational discipline and learning opportunities determine how effectively organizations use AI. Just as the internet eventually stopped differentiating companies, AI access will, too. The differentiator will be an organization’s ability to use AI in ways that strengthen the business. That means building readiness across the organization, such as giving employees hands-on opportunities to build judgment alongside AI or continuous learning that helps them adapt as AI evolves.
Human Expertise Needed
Organizations may be catching on. Jobs requiring AI skills are growing nearly eight times faster than the overall labor market, and professionals with AI expertise earn 62% higher pay compared to those without AI skills, according to PwC’s “2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer.” In other words, professionals with AI skills are in demand and are being rewarded financially for helping organizations build AI capabilities.
But companies aren’t just looking for AI skills. According to the same PwC study, entry-level roles that involve AI skills are seven times more likely to require capabilities such as judgment and leadership, which aren’t traditionally entry-level requirements. So while AI skills are in demand, human expertise is, too.
Just 23% of business leaders believe their teams are fully prepared for AI, according to Kyndryl’s second annual “People Readiness Report.” This means most leaders are managing a gap between what their AI investments promise and what their teams can deliver. To close this gap, leaders need to invest in upskilling the people tasked with governing and making decisions alongside increasingly autonomous systems.
Effective upskilling means giving employees opportunities to practice making decisions. In cybersecurity, that could mean putting teams through realistic scenarios where AI recommends a course of action and employees must evaluate the recommendation and decide when human intervention is necessary.
Automation Requires Judgment
Cybersecurity offers a clear example of why human oversight is so critical. Cybersecurity teams are using AI to automate tasks and prioritize vulnerabilities. However, the most consequential security decisions require business context, operational awareness and sound judgment.
For example, an AI model may correctly recommend patching a vulnerable industrial controller, but only an experienced security professional can determine whether doing so could disrupt manufacturing operations or interrupt critical infrastructure. The technical recommendation may be correct, but only a human deeply familiar with the complex business operations can determine the consequences of that fix.
Many professionals across industries are concerned that as AI advances, organizations will need fewer humans, but I believe the opposite. As AI takes over routine work, people will be even more valuable in making strategic decisions. Every step toward automation increases the need for and importance of human intervention.
Research from Hack The Box reinforces this principle. Our NeuroGrid Agentic AI vs Humans Benchmark analyzed 1,337 human teams and 156 AI teams across 36 cybersecurity challenges. Elite human-AI teams outperformed AI operating independently, completing challenges 312% faster, indicating that AI amplifies expertise rather than replacing it.
Readiness Must Be Built
This productivity gain is exactly why AI readiness must become a strategic priority. The same AI capabilities that accelerate productivity can also expand the attack surface and threats to organizations. As AI systems become more autonomous, organizations must prepare employees to understand when to trust them, when to challenge them and when to override them. Readiness must become a core element of enterprise resilience.
Organizations must also consider how they will develop the next generation of decision-makers. As organizations automate entry-level work, they may very well eliminate the experiences that have traditionally developed future experts and leaders. For example, cybersecurity professionals have used repetitive alert analysis and foundational operational tasks to build intuition and judgment. Removing those experiences without creating new development opportunities threatens the talent pipeline. Organizations may find themselves with increasingly capable AI systems but too few professionals qualified to oversee them.
The AI Advantage Is Human
AI is already widely accessible. AI readiness—developing the ability to make decisions, adapt to change and transform technology into business outcomes—is not. As the technology becomes embedded across business functions, CISOs will increasingly be looked upon to help executive leadership and boards navigate governance, operational resilience, workforce preparedness and enterprise risk. To prepare to lead in these areas, CISOs must approach AI readiness with the same vigor and care as AI adoption, building the skills, judgment and development opportunities employees need to govern AI effectively. Developing the human capability is a strategic investment in long-term competitive advantage.
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