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Techday NZ
16-07-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
AI Appreciation Day calls for ethical & human-centred innovation
The growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) across industries is the focus of this year's AI Appreciation Day, as leaders from technology, law, and cybersecurity sectors share insights on the achievements and challenges presented by rapid developments in AI. Laura Ellis, Vice President of Data & AI at Rapid7, highlights the transformative reach of AI in the business landscape. "AI has completely changed how businesses operate. It streamlines processes and helps teams make smarter decisions, leading to better outcomes for customers," she said. Ellis stressed the importance of recognising the human effort behind these advancements, remarking, "It is important that every day, not just on AI Appreciation Day, we honour the people who tirelessly dedicate their time, knowledge, and drive to building and leveraging these technologies." She called for a responsible approach, urging that technology remain "human-centric, transparent, and ethical, so it can continue to drive meaningful impact." The legal profession has not been immune to AI's influence, with substantial shifts in workflows and professional roles. David Fischl, a partner specialising in corporate and commercial law at Hicksons | Hunt & Hunt, noted that the sector is moving beyond generic AI-driven "chat-and-answer" tools towards highly tailored systems integrated into legal practice areas. At his firm, Fischl reports the adoption of specialised AI tools has transformed processes like document review and chronology creation, streamlining previously time-intensive tasks. This, he explained, allows junior lawyers to "spend more time on high-level legal reasoning earlier in their careers, building stronger lawyers faster" and has helped foster a new breed of hybrid professionals: "the 'AI strategy lawyer', a hybrid role of legal professionals who understand how to integrate AI into workflows to deliver real value without compromising on the legal expertise that clients trust." Clients, according to Fischl, are reaping tangible benefits from AI deployment in legal services, such as quicker turnaround, enhanced offerings, and greater pricing predictability. He encouraged continued curiosity and engagement with emerging AI technologies, cautioning that the "real power of AI lies in its ability to augment and not replace the unique skills and judgment lawyers bring to their clients." AI's dual edge is particularly sharp in the field of cybersecurity, where it is both a transformative tool for defenders and a potent asset for attackers. Fabio Fratucello, Field CTO World Wide at CrowdStrike, described how the proliferation of AI is enabling adversaries to "automate social engineering, misinformation campaigns, and credential harvesting at unprecedented speed and scale." He cited CrowdStrike's own research, which found sophisticated attackers using large language models to conduct highly convincing phishing and business email compromise campaigns. Yet, Fratucello remains optimistic about AI's potential to boost defensive capabilities. With teams overwhelmed by increasing alert volumes and a shortage of skilled analysts, "security teams must leverage AI to protect their organisations and move from reactive response to proactive threat disruption." He pointed to solutions like CrowdStrike's Charlotte AI Agentic Detection Triage, capable of autonomously validating and prioritising threats with a reported accuracy above 98%, freeing up analysts to focus on more complex threat detection and mitigation. Built with checks and balances, Charlotte AI "allows organisations to define how and when automated decisions are made, giving analysts full control to set thresholds, determine when human review is required, and maintain oversight." Fratucello suggested that AI Appreciation Day should inspire more organisations to embrace such technologies "to take back control, reduce burnout, and decisively shift the AI advantage back in their favour." Micah Heaton, Executive Director of Microsoft Product and Innovation Strategy at BlueVoyant, offered a philosophical perspective on the day's significance. "AI Appreciation Day isn't about machines. It's about us. It's about the choices we make at machine speed that still echo at human scale," he stated. Heaton underlined the ethical dimension of AI, insisting that responsibility "isn't a checkbox. It's the only thing standing between progress and catastrophe." He emphasised that the shaping of AI's trajectory is a collective responsibility, urging, "If we want AI to work in the right direction, we have to bring every voice to the table. We have to build with intention, wield it with moral clarity, and protect people with the same ferocity we protect their data." As AI embeds deeper into the fabric of modern life, the commentaries from industry leaders converge on a common theme: responsible innovation. While AI accelerates efficiencies and creates new opportunities, its broader success relies on a commitment to ethics, transparency, human oversight, and inclusivity. AI Appreciation Day thus becomes not only an occasion to acknowledge technological progress, but a call to action for conscientious stewardship of the technologies shaping society's future.
Techday NZ
26-06-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
Rapid7 launches agentic AI to boost MDR speed & accuracy
Rapid7 has announced the integration of agentic AI workflows into its security information and event management (SIEM) and extended detection and response (XDR) platform, aiming to change how managed detection and response (MDR) environments handle security threats within security operations centres (SOCs). The newly embedded agentic AI capabilities utilise Rapid7's AI Engine to autonomously execute core investigative tasks traditionally managed by SOC analysts. This development is intended to allow analysts to focus on deeper analysis, reduce investigation times, and enable faster resolution of security incidents for customers. Automation in security operations According to Rapid7, the new workflows are a response to the evolving threat landscape, where AI technologies are used by attackers to mount faster and more sophisticated campaigns. The company claims its agentic AI can handle alert triage with an accuracy rate of 99.93%, reportedly saving SOC teams more than 200 hours per week. The integration of these workflows is part of a wider effort to scale MDR services and improve transparency into the decision-making process when security events are detected and investigated. This is particularly important given the increasing volume and complexity of alerts faced by security teams. "AI isn't just an enhancement to security operations, it's a catalyst for a new era of scale, speed, and strategic decision-making. At Rapid7, we believe AI must be human-centric, transparent and accountable, and built on analyst expertise. The launch of agentic AI workflows for MDR represents the foundational step in our broader vision for agentic AI across the platform. Far more than just automation, this is the beginning of a system capable of intelligent and adaptive decision-making." This statement was made by Laura Ellis, Vice President of AI and Data at Rapid7. Focus on high-impact tasks Agentic AI workflows have been trained on playbooks authored by Rapid7's security operations centre experts and are continually refined through use in real-world scenarios. The company states these workflows aim to improve confidence in organisations' security posture through scalable, repeatable investigations, while ensuring that analysts can reallocate time to higher complexity issues. Further, these workflows are designed to enhance visibility into the reasoning and logic behind AI-driven decisions, providing greater control over the security process and transparency for organisations using the platform. "A world-class SOC optimizes for the 'human' decision moment. With agentic AI workflows, we're using AI to present the right information to enable accurate and fast human decisions that allow organizations to quickly find and stop today's AI-enabled attackers. Agentic AI workflows automate repetitive tasks, surface relevant findings, and provide contextual information to support analyst decision-making. By delivering timely, actionable insights, these workflows improve the quality of decisions being made and empower analysts to move confidently to the next step in the response process." This perspective was shared by Jon Hencinski, Vice President Detection & Response at Rapid7. Industry observations The approach taken by Rapid7 in embedding AI-driven workflows has also been commented on by industry analysts. Craig Robinson, Research Vice President at IDC, remarked: "Successful AI deployment in any cybersecurity platform needs to be thoughtful and planned: from the classification of data through to disciplined workflows and orchestration of detections with responses. Rapid7's approach to AI implementation checks each of these boxes with deliberate, transparent, practical AI processes that deliver real-world efficiencies for its customers." Continuous adaptation Rapid7 highlights that its agentic AI workflows are iteratively improved based on operational data and expert input, aiming to provide both scale and adaptability in cybersecurity environments where attack methods and volumes are continuously evolving. The company asserts that this focus on automation and transparency will result in improved alert fidelity, shorter investigation cycles, and a more strategic allocation of human resources within SOCs. Rapid7's enhanced MDR experience with agentic AI is intended to offer organisations increased command of their attack surfaces while responding to the speed and complexity of AI-driven threats. Follow us on: Share on:
