The demand side is clear. Businesses took a cautious approach to hiring across 2025, but there were real demand hotspots for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). In other words, when budgets tighten, security and AI skills are where teams keep spending.
The cyber workforce itself is growing, just not fast enough to keep pace. There are approximately 143,000 individuals in the UK cyber security workforce, with growth moderately accelerating from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. A larger pool, still under strain.
And the strain shows at the hiring stage. Even as the proportion of employers struggling to fill vacancies has declined overall, 70% of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. So the question for most security leaders isn't whether to hire, it's how to find the right people quickly.
Two trends are colliding. AI capability is scaling at pace: demand for AI skills increased nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK The Register (Accenture data). As AI moves into security operations, it stops being a tool you query and starts being an agent that acts.
When an automated agent triages alerts, blocks traffic or opens a case on its own, someone still owns the outcome. That's the supervision role. These people set the guardrails, review the agent's decisions, catch false positives before they disrupt the business, and escalate the calls a machine shouldn't make alone. It's a blend of security judgement and a working understanding of how the models behave.
It also reflects where the market is heading. The specialist skills driving demand are AI, data and cyber security together Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026), and agent supervision sits exactly where those three meet. Expect the job titles to keep shifting as teams work out what to call this work.
Start by writing the role around the decision, not the title. What will this person approve, override or escalate? Define the guardrails they own and the point at which a human must step in. A clear scope makes the shortlist sharper and the interview fairer.
Then hire for judgement over tool lists. With 70% of cyber firms reporting at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk, an exhaustive requirements list only shrinks an already tight pool. Look for people who can explain how they'd test an agent's output, spot a bad automated decision and justify an override. Those skills transfer across the AI, data and cyber skill sets that are in demand right now Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026).
Finally, move quickly and look beyond London. With London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings The Register (Accenture data), the capital is crowded, so widening your geography and keeping your process short are two of the simplest ways to reach strong people before someone else does.
This is where Reed.ai fits. We search a database of 15 million candidates to find people who can set the guardrails and supervise your automated security agents, and we manage the recruitment end to end so your team stays focused on the work. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us what the role needs to own, and we'll build you a shortlist.
