“We want to be the association that can help prepare the cybersecurity workforce for the many challenges of this AI era,” Scott Beale told Infosecurity at the ISC2 Security Congress 2026 in Denver on October 26.
Scott Beale’s early mandate at ISC2
Scott Beale, who became ISC2’s CEO in December 2025, has turned a year of member consultation into an actionable initiative. After spending his first six months listening to ISC2’s membership, Beale said a majority wanted the nonprofit to take a more ambitious and vocal role on AI safety and security. The Cyber-AI Workforce Coalition, announced on October 20, is one of the first major programs he has introduced in that direction.
The Cyber-AI Workforce Coalition: a vendor‑neutral convener
Beale described the coalition as a “vendor-neutral convener” intended to bring together a range of people and organizations that affect how cybersecurity work is defined and hired. The coalition aims to include thought leaders such as HR managers and CISOs, large employers of cybersecurity practitioners, standards-setting bodies, and government representatives to discuss how roles are changing at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.
Beale framed the coalition’s work as complementary to ongoing standards updates — for example, those by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) — rather than as a replacement for them. He noted that even as standards and frameworks evolve, employers still face practical gaps in how to advertise and fill new AI security roles, with job descriptions differing across sectors: “How a bank describes these jobs is still very different from how a hospital would,” he said.
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End the scramblePractical toolkits, not new standards
Rather than produce new standards or frameworks, ISC2 intends the coalition to deliver practical toolkits for employers and practitioners. Those toolkits will provide guidance on how employers should hire, develop and organize cybersecurity talent for AI-related work, and how practitioners can identify and build the expertise employers need.
Beale outlined three core questions the coalition’s tools will address:
- How are cybersecurity jobs changing?
- How are employers writing job descriptions for these new roles?
- How are candidates preparing to interview and fill these jobs?
Beale also linked the coalition’s work to ISC2’s own education and credentialing efforts: “As you know, ISC2 is working on a new AI security certification, and certainly we think it is going to be part of that answer and will help us define some of these new roles,” he said, while stressing that the certification is not presented as the sole solution.
Timeline, pilots and public access
The coalition will hold its first meeting in November. Beale hopes the group can develop a first series of toolkits by the spring of 2027 and support pilot use by some companies during that phase. He said the tools are expected to be made available broadly over time, not restricted to ISC2 members, and that universities and certification bodies should find them useful when adapting curricula.
What this means for employers, practitioners, and universities
- Employers (HR teams, CISOs, large organizations including banks and hospitals): the coalition aims to produce ready-to-use job descriptions and hiring guidance that reflect sector differences — helping employers translate emerging AI security skills into concrete roles.
- Practitioners and candidates: the toolkits will offer a clearer map of which skills to build and how to prepare for interviews for AI security positions; ISC2’s planned AI security certification is positioned as one contributory credential.
- Universities and certification bodies: the materials are intended to be adaptable resources for curriculum and credential updates, offering a bridge between evolving employer needs and formal education pathways.
ISC2’s Cyber-AI Workforce Coalition reframes a familiar problem — a skills gap mapped by years of workforce studies — into an action-oriented, membership‑driven program. The organisation is betting that practical toolkits, developed with employers and standards bodies in the room, will speed how quickly hiring practices, curricula and certifications align to AI security demands. The next concrete checkpoints are the coalition’s November meeting and the stated goal of pilot-ready toolkits by spring 2027.
