Beyond Generative AI

Building a Proactive, Expert-Guided Cybersecurity AI System

The intention of this article is different from my previous ones. Those were based on insights, challenges and actions in networking and cybersecurity. Their intention was to increase business and technical effectiveness.

This one is about the challenging journey into the unknown that we are all facing. If generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is not the topic of the moment in your business life, then you are living on another planet! Having written my first data-driven guidance and measurement software many years ago, it became obvious that if I wanted to create an AI-assisted implementation for my cybersecurity software, then I needed to understand the nature of the beast. I rapidly discovered that using GenAI alone was never going to cut it.

Why Is This Important, and What Inspired Me?

My goal was to create a cybersecurity system reflecting my organization’s purpose—Cybyr.com: Every Organization Protected. The system should make recommendations and measure risk reduction over time.

Much more than that, I wanted users from all types of organizations to be appraised of the very latest developments and ask for information GenAI style but not with the dated, risky large language model (LLM) approach and uncertain privacy.

Therefore, I embarked on a different path that enabled the use of AI while recognizing both its strengths and limitations—and those limitations really don’t become apparent until you use it every day.

Understanding the Beast

We are all in the initial stages of this journey. So, I want to share my reality check on the strengths and weaknesses of GenAI and humans leading me to take a new approach.

Concerns

• Trust. A recent study from Arctic Wolf revealed that AI has replaced malware as the biggest cybersecurity concern. I suspect the fear of the unknown and the opaqueness of LLM privacy are the reasons. Hopefully, this article removes some of these unknowns.
• When an answer is incorrect, GenAI covers up. For example, my wife, Michelle, was working on a project. After two hours of GenAI not completing a task, she asked why. It said, “I’m designed to sound helpful even when I hit limits that create a gap between what I say I can deliver and what I can actually deliver.”
• Consumption of vast amounts of power and ecological impact with optimism of a solution.

The Conclusion – So Far

We must adapt. The human will always be the thinker and the controller, and the AI is the accelerator. Understanding the above comparison, GenAI does make what we do more valuable, productive and enables our personal creativity. Referring to GenAI as a partner, companion or useful idiot, implies human attributes and qualities it cannot have. It is remarkable software programmed to engage the user and yes it often infuriates as a trial-and-error machine! We all know it will improve over time.

Building a Proactive, Expert-Guided Cybersecurity System

The shift in my journey was to see how to combine the strengths of both AI systems and humans. This meant defining a system that does not rely on what a GenAI “remembers.” It should draw upon combined subject matter expertise, dynamically integrated and updated with today’s thinking and GenAI questioning into private informative guidance.

This is integrated with transformative expert recommendations, explanations, implementation, progress measurement and GenAI-style questioning. This creates a single customizable system, which I have termed a Proactive Expert-Guided Cybersecurity System.

As with Agentic AI, this is likely one of several innovative approaches. It combines the human aspects of current user context with AI’s ability to draw upon relevant information, taking us from overload to expertise.

The journey has been full of learning moments, such as managing the sheer volume of information—a common issue with AI responses: the dreaded “too long; didn’t read.” Providing transformative questions deals with the limitation that users don’t know which questions to ask.

Why This Matters

Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue—it’s a business imperative. However, most organizations don’t have the resources to sift through every standard framework or emerging threat. That’s where this system makes a difference. It distills expert guidance into actionable steps tailored to the user’s context and keeps evolving with new data. The good news is this approach can be applied to adjacent areas: resilience, HR, and, in fact, any guidance or white paper topic can move from what to do to a tool that makes recommendations on implementation and measurement of progress.

Happy Ending

Building this platform has been part engineering, part philosophy. It’s a recognition that GenAI, while powerful, isn’t enough. We need systems that guide, prioritize, learn transparently, and provide guidance. I have no doubt that without AI, I could not have built my new system. I hope you have found this evolving story of interest and relevant to your efforts.

The journey continues and expands on my website at cybyr.com/ai with discussions of the latest AI tools and a description of my new Expert-Guided Cyber security System. I’d love to hear your reaction.

Mark Fishburn is CEO of cybyr.com and a provider of strategic network, cybersecurity, and marketing services.