CISOs Talk About the Role of People in AI-Powered Security

At the RSAC 2026 Conference in San Francisco, the question was whether AI deployments need a "human in the loop" or if people will just slow things down This article explores security ai revolution. . That was a big question during a panel at the RSAC 2026 Conference where security leaders from Google Cloud, Vodafone, and PayPal talked about how AI is being used in new ways and how to safely use it in your own space.

James Rundle of The Wall Street Journal asked Google Cloud's chief operating officer (COO) and president of security products in the panel "From Threat to Strategy: The CISO's Playbook for the AI Revolution." We asked Francis deSouza, Vodafone's global chief information security officer (CISO), Emma Smith, and PayPal's senior VP and CISO Shaun Khalfan how security leaders can best adapt to the new AI landscape.

The three also talked about how people fit into AI-powered security. The "AI revolution" wants to solve a lot of problems, but the release of LLM-powered security products has made some problems in the security landscape worse or created new ones. She also said that Vodafone has made a heat map that shows how sure people are about an AI's outcome and how risky it might be.

Vodafone probably wouldn't go this route for use cases with very high risk impact unless there was a big business benefit. "And then it would definitely have a human in the loop." ## Why Data Security and Working Together Are Important Khalfan followed Smith by stressing how important it is to put everything you do in a data security wrapper.

PayPal is in favor of the engineering and technological benefits of AI tools, but he also said that "it's just as important to have a risk and compliance wrapper around it." "Data and security are two of the most important AI principles we think about. "It's privacy, it's openness, and it's being able to explain things," he said.

"As we wrap everything we're doing in these principles, it helps us keep this anchor of all of the efforts that we're making." PayPal's AI model teams, for instance, rank them in tiers based on how sensitive the data is, how it will be used, and what controls need to be in place to keep any sensitive data safe.