O'Reilly: How to Balance AI Adoption & Cybersecurity

The global surge in AI adoption comes at a time when organisations face growing pressure to balance technological innovation with robust security measures.

The World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Risks Report highlighted the critical intersection of AI advancement and cybersecurity, noting that 75% of global business leaders identify AI-related security vulnerabilities as a primary concern.

Meanwhile, regulatory frameworks worldwide, including the EU's AI Act and China's algorithmic regulations, have created new compliance requirements for organisations implementing AI technologies.

Looking to the future, O'Reilly has released its comprehensive 2025 Technology Trends Report, offering insights into how these broader industry shifts are affecting skill development and security priorities.

The report comes when organisations worldwide are reassessing their technology training strategies and security governance frameworks to address the evolving demands of AI integration.

AI skills surge across industries

O'Reilly’s report indicates a substantial increase in interest surrounding AI technologies, which are now becoming integral to development practices rather than a choice.

The data shows dramatic rises in usage of related skills, with prompt engineering experiencing a remarkable 456% increase.

This technique involves crafting effective prompts for AI systems to generate desired outputs.

Similarly, AI principles saw a 386% increase, while Gen AI usage rose by 289%.

A notable highlight is the surge in interest in GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant that enhances developer productivity.

O’Reilly reported that its usage increased by an impressive 471%, reflecting a growing enthusiasm for tools that streamline coding processes.

However, the report also noted a decline in interest for specific platforms like GPT, which experienced a 13% drop in usage.

This trend suggests that developers are prioritising foundational knowledge of AI over platform-specific skills to effectively engage with various AI models such as Claude and Google’s Gemini.

In addition to these trends, new skills related to LangChain and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) have gained prominence, now comparable to established libraries like PyTorch and Keras.

These advancements enable developers to build more sophisticated applications atop existing AI models.

Security governance takes centre stage

As organisations embrace new technologies, security governance has also emerged as a critical area of focus.

O'Reilly indicates substantial growth in search topics related to governance, risk and compliance (GRC), which saw a 44% increase.

This reflects an increasing recognition of the importance of managing risks associated with digital operations.

Interest in compliance skills also rose by 10%, while application security content grew by 17%, highlighting developers' commitment to securing applications across various platforms.

The rise of the zero trust model - a security framework that requires strict verification for every person or device attempting to access resources - saw a 13% increase in usage. 

This approach underscores a proactive stance towards security within organisations, as Zero trust assumes that threats could originate from both outside and inside an organisation’s network, necessitating continuous verification of user identity and access rights.

Additional findings from the report reveal that data engineering skills experienced a 29% increase, emphasising the critical role data plays in powering AI applications.

Conversely, traditional programming languages like Python and Java saw declines in usage, with Python dropping by 5.3% and Java by 13%.

In contrast, Rust emerged as a preferred language among developers, with its usage increasing by 9.6%.

Security certifications continue to be highly sought after, with CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CompTIA Security+ seeing growth rates of 11% and 13%, respectively.

Meanwhile, interest in cloud computing appears to have plateaued, with content use across major cloud providers declining except for Google Cloud certifications, which experienced a modest growth of 2.2%.

The future of technology education

Mike Loukides, Vice President of Emerging Technology Content at O'Reilly and author of the report, commented on these trends: “This year marks a pivotal transition in technology, with AI evolving from generative capabilities to a transformative force reshaping how developers approach their craft.”

“As foundational skills gain prominence and organizations increasingly adopt comprehensive security practices, professionals must prioritise upskilling to effectively integrate these tools into their operations. The future is not about fearing AI's impact on jobs but in harnessing its potential to enhance productivity and drive innovation across industries.”

Therefore, as organisations navigate these challenges, understanding emerging trends will be crucial for maintaining competitiveness and ensuring robust security measures are in place.

The ongoing evolution of technology demands that businesses adapt quickly to leverage new capabilities while safeguarding their digital assets effectively.

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