AI chips away at cybersecurity job opportunities

Artificial intelligence is quietly eroding the very jobs it was supposed to help create—especially in cybersecurity, a field long touted as a gateway out of poverty and into stable tech careers. Once seen as a high-demand, entry-level-friendly field, cybersecurity now faces a paradox: despite decades of training programs, boot camps, and government incentives, entry-level opportunities are vanishing. Megan Osteen, a single mom who left her career in behavioral therapy to pursue cybersecurity certification, describes the field as a 'false advertisement'—she's qualified, certified, and still can't land a job. The reason? Companies are increasingly replacing junior roles with AI tools that automate routine tasks like monitoring systems and prioritizing threats. As Harvard Business School's Joseph Fuller notes, when labor markets signal high demand, companies respond not by hiring more people, but by investing in tools that reduce their need for human workers. This shift has left a generation of job seekers—many from underserved communities—stranded, with training programs like those at JVS now questioning whether they can still deliver on their promise of upward mobility. The result is a new kind of economic insecurity: not from lack of effort, but from the very technologies meant to empower us.