The Cybersecurity Skills Gap in the Age of AI: Training Teams for the Threats AI Created

Artificial intelligence is now working on both sides of the security war, and the defenders are understaffed. New research from Barracuda Networks, based on a survey of 2,000 IT and security decision makers, found that 94% of organisations report cybersecurity skills gaps. The sharpest gaps are exactly where AI is moving fastest: 68% cite gaps related to AI risks, and 67% point to advanced identity and phishing threats such as business email compromise, OAuth abuse, and multifactor authentication bypass.

The pressure is already changing team shape. Some 56% of organisations report a reduction in security head count linked to AI, split across entry level and senior roles, while 67% say their teams are struggling to scale to meet evolving business needs. Nearly a third admit they can protect the business only reactively rather than proactively. The lesson is not that AI replaces security professionals. It is that AI raises the skill floor for every professional who remains. We explored a closely related shift in our piece on AI agent security, and the case for moving from reactive to proactive defense in our guide to cyber resilience.

Where the Gaps Hurt Most

The Barracuda findings cluster around three pressure points.

AI risk skills. Teams are deploying copilots, agents, and automated workflows faster than they can govern them. Defenders now need to understand model behaviour, prompt level attacks, agent permissions, and AI supply chain risk, skills that barely existed in job descriptions three years ago.

Identity and phishing defense. Attackers use AI to craft flawless phishing, abuse OAuth consent, and bypass MFA. Identity has become the perimeter, and defending it takes trained analysts who can spot subtle abuse across cloud apps.

Capacity to be proactive. Half of respondents say their professionals support growing digital operations without additional resources, and 40% say business expectations exceed their team's skills and tooling. When every hour goes to firefighting, threat hunting, hardening, and rehearsal never happen.

Why Hiring Alone Will Not Fix It

The instinctive response to a skills gap is a job post. But the same research shows why that fails: the market does not have enough AI fluent security professionals to hire, and head count is shrinking, not growing. The organisations coping best are building skills internally, moving strong generalists into security roles, upskilling analysts on AI tooling, and giving senior staff the governance and architecture training to lead AI era defense. Training scales in a way recruitment currently cannot.

Building an AI Ready Security Team

A practical upskilling path has four layers:

• Foundations first: every analyst needs solid security fundamentals, from network defense to incident response basics.
• AI security fluency: how AI systems fail, how agents act on data, and how to secure copilots and automated workflows.
• Identity depth: phishing resistant authentication, OAuth and token abuse, and identity threat detection and response.
• Leadership and governance: risk frameworks, audit readiness, and the architecture decisions that keep AI adoption inside policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What does the Barracuda research say about the cybersecurity skills gap? In a survey of 2,000 IT and security decision makers, 94% of organisations reported cybersecurity skills gaps, 68% cited AI related gaps, and 67% pointed to advanced identity and phishing threats.
• Is AI reducing security jobs? Some 56% of organisations reported reduced security head count linked to AI, across both entry level and senior roles. At the same time, demand is rising for professionals with AI security, identity, and governance skills, so the work is shifting rather than disappearing.
• Which skills do security teams need most in the AI era? AI risk and agent security, identity and phishing defense, cloud security, incident response, and governance skills such as audit and risk management.
• Can training really close the gap faster than hiring? In most cases, yes. The external market is short of AI fluent security professionals, while structured upskilling turns existing staff into capable defenders on a predictable timeline.
• Where should a team start? With recognised foundations and certifications that map to the gaps: security fundamentals, AI powered security tooling, and senior level architecture and audit credentials.

Master Cybersecurity Skills with CourseMonster

The skills gap is a training problem with a training solution. CourseMonster provides comprehensive, expert led programs that map directly onto the gaps the Barracuda research exposes: Cybersecurity Foundation for core defense skills, Microsoft Copilot for Security Essentials for AI powered security operations, CISSP for security architecture and leadership, and CISA for audit and governance.

What Your Teams Will Master

• AI security fundamentals: how AI systems and agents create risk, and how to govern them
• Identity defense: stopping phishing, OAuth abuse, and MFA bypass techniques
• Proactive operations: threat hunting, hardening, and rehearsed incident response
• Security leadership: architecture, risk, and audit skills for senior practitioners

Driven by Course Leagues for Reliable Completion

To keep your learning on track, CourseMonster powers its programs with Course Leagues, our enterprise team accountability platform.

Course Leagues organises learners into collaborative cohorts. You clear weekly sprint milestones, track progress on real-time dashboards, and earn verifiable skill badges, keeping your upskilling on schedule and your ambitions backed by evidence.

AI is not waiting for your team to catch up. Contact CourseMonster today to explore our cybersecurity course catalog and start closing the skills gap.