As the RSAC 2025 Conference gets underway in San Francisco this week, AI and its implications for the cybersecurity industry will be a prime topic of conversation in sessions and hallways during the week-long event.

This will include the growing role of AI agents and what continued widespread adoption of the technology will mean for executives tasked with protecting data and critical infrastructure.

“Agentic AI, you won’t be able to cross the street here without hearing that term,” said Jon Oltsik (pictured, left), analyst-at-large with theCUBE Research. “A lot of the pedestrian work will get outsourced to AI agents. You are going to need to write the rulesets and fine tune the models. Every CISO should be researching that, asking their people to research that, because it’s coming.”

Oltsik spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier (right) as part of the kickoff analysis at the RSAC 2025 Conference, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed key themes that will likely be the focus at the conference. (* Disclosure below.)

Cybersecurity industry focuses on replatforming

One of the key themes to emerge in the cybersecurity industry leading up to this year’s RSAC Conference is that AI adoption has driven renewed interest in network security. Legacy incumbent security vendors are increasingly being asked to defend installed bases, and as modern security stacks become more complex, there is a pragmatic push toward integrated network platforms and reducing risk.

“Is network security making a comeback, or did it ever leave?” Furrier asked. “We are in an era of replatforming security.”

This notion of replatforming can be seen in data recently published by Enterprise Technology Research. Spending patterns and priorities highlight the realities of platform consolidation as the security industry seeks to keep pace with innovation and rising threat vectors.

“We are absolutely in a replatforming,” Oltsik said. “Everything is in play. There’s innovation in every layer of the security stack. It’s driven by scale and the diversity of hybrid IT.”

As market pressure builds around replatforming, Managed Security Service Providers could become bellwethers for where the industry is headed. Service providers will likely be where innovation and reality collide.

“To grow their business, MSSPs have to scale; to scale they have to automate,” Oltsik noted. “Watch what they do; they may be ‘out-innovating’ the platform guys.”

AI adoption and replatforming are expected to transform the skillsets and priorities for many security practitioners. In an industry where there is a natural tendency to move deliberately, security professionals should keep an open mind to new tools and practices, Oltsik added.

“Security people are paid to be skeptical; they are paid to break things. However, this is happening fast,” he said. “The CISO can’t be ‘Doctor No.’ They should be seeing how this can help them. The new mindset is … to absolutely move with cautious optimism.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the RSAC 2025 Conference event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the RSAC 2025 Conference. The sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE