[Panel] AI Dependency Threshold: Building a Smarter Workforce Without Creating Operational Fragility
About This Session
AI is rapidly changing how employees research, write, analyze, code, communicate, and make decisions. While these tools can improve productivity and expand workforce capabilities, they may also weaken critical thinking, reduce knowledge retention, and create dependence on systems employees may not fully understand.
This panel will examine how organizations can build AI fluency without sacrificing human
judgment, foundational skills, or operational resilience. Panelists will discuss how leaders can recognize when automation has crossed from productive augmentation into excessive dependency, including the risks of reduced oversight, provider concentration, limited fallback capabilities, and an inability to operate effectively when AI systems are unavailable.
This panel will examine how organizations can build AI fluency without sacrificing human
judgment, foundational skills, or operational resilience. Panelists will discuss how leaders can recognize when automation has crossed from productive augmentation into excessive dependency, including the risks of reduced oversight, provider concentration, limited fallback capabilities, and an inability to operate effectively when AI systems are unavailable.
Speakers
Dan Lohrmann
Field CISO, Public Sector - Presidio
Dan is an experienced cybersecurity and technology leader with a career spanning government, industry, academia, and public-sector advisory roles. He currently serves as field chief information security officer (CISO) for public sector at Presidio, advising government organizations on cybersecurity strategy and best practices.
From 2002 to 2014, Dan led cybersecurity and technology infrastructure teams for the State of Michigan. He has also advised the White House, the National Governors Association, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, federal, state and local government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.
Dan is the co-author of Cyber Mayday and the Day After: A Leader’s Guide to Preparing, Managing and Recovering from Inevitable Business Disruptions. He has authored two additional books and contributed to five others.
Dan has served on cybersecurity and information assurance advisory boards at five universities and as adjunct faculty at two universities. He also advises cybersecurity companies serving the public sector and speaks internationally on cybersecurity, technology, and government leadership.
From 2002 to 2014, Dan led cybersecurity and technology infrastructure teams for the State of Michigan. He has also advised the White House, the National Governors Association, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, federal, state and local government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.
Dan is the co-author of Cyber Mayday and the Day After: A Leader’s Guide to Preparing, Managing and Recovering from Inevitable Business Disruptions. He has authored two additional books and contributed to five others.
Dan has served on cybersecurity and information assurance advisory boards at five universities and as adjunct faculty at two universities. He also advises cybersecurity companies serving the public sector and speaks internationally on cybersecurity, technology, and government leadership.
Brian "SchleiF" Schleifer
Director of Content, Events - SecurityWeek
Brian "SchleiF" Schleifer is Director of Content for SecurityWeek Events. He is a retired United States Air Force veteran, cybersecurity professional, podcast host and content leader. He previously served in senior cybersecurity engineering and leadership roles at Modern Technology Solutions, Inc. His experience includes cyber-physical and weapon systems security, security control assessment, cyber testing, risk management, and AI governance. He is pursuing a Doctor of Technology at Purdue University, where his research focuses on adaptive cybersecurity policy for AI-enabled systems. He is also the creator of the Adaptive Artificial Intelligence Risk and Assurance Framework, or AAIRAF. With more than 10,000 hours of public speaking, instruction, and panel moderation experience, Brian is known for making complex cybersecurity, technology, and risk topics practical and accessible.
Jacob Rideout
Chief Technology Officer - HiddenLayer
Jacob Rideout is the Chief Technology Officer of HiddenLayer, a cybersecurity start-up dedicated to preventing adversarial machine learning attacks. He has over a decade of experience leading engineering, product management, threat research, and data science teams, with a focus on security products at organizations such as Salesforce and Agari. Jacob has successfully brought multiple cutting-edge products to market, overseen acquisition transitions, collaborated with technical working groups at M3AAWG, ETIS, IETF, and MITRE, and managed research patents. Jacob lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife Sarah and son Solomon.
