Digital resilience compounds when AI and human expertise scale together

Agentic AI, presented by Splunk, is revolutionizing the way IT and security teams operate. By automating repetitive tasks that were once the domain of junior analysts and engineers, AI is streamlining processes and increasing efficiency. However, this shift is also raising concerns about the loss of traditional apprenticeship opportunities that have long been crucial for developing experienced operators.

For years, junior workforce members honed their skills through tasks like triaging false positives, analyzing logs, and monitoring dashboards. While considered tedious, these tasks served as invaluable training grounds, helping individuals build intuition and expertise through exposure and pattern recognition. As AI takes over these tasks, organizations are faced with the challenge of how to cultivate the next generation of skilled professionals.

The rise of agentic AI also raises accountability issues in regulated environments. Auditors rely on human judgment to explain control decisions, and as the workforce of experienced operators diminishes, the organizational memory and accountability layers may weaken. To address this, organizations must invest in building human expertise to govern AI effectively.

Governing agentic systems requires human operators to implement automated guardrails, adapt to non-deterministic behavior, and make judgment calls based on years of experience. Organizations must provide intentional pathways for operators to manage AI systems effectively while building the intuition and judgment necessary to oversee these systems.

Empowerment is a critical aspect of the conversation around AI implementation. Organizations must design systems that empower human operators by exposing reasoning, tiering authority based on confidence and impact, treating disagreements as learning opportunities, and capturing resolutions as cross-domain knowledge.

Ultimately, the key to success in the agentic era lies in ensuring that human operators and AI systems scale together. By prioritizing operator development and designing systems that facilitate learning and growth, organizations can leverage AI to operate at machine speed and scale while fostering human expertise.

To learn more about how Cisco Data Fabric powered by the Splunk Platform is accelerating agentic operations, visit the Splunk website. Kamal Hathi, SVP and GM of Splunk, a Cisco Company, offers valuable insights into the future of AI and human collaboration.

This sponsored article was produced in collaboration with Splunk, a company with a strong focus on advancing agentic AI operations. For more information on sponsored content, contact sales@venturebeat.com.