AI: The Hero's Journey with Ken Westin from LimaCharlie / Defender Fridays [#320]

In this episode, Ken Westin maps AI adoption onto the hero's journey framework, drawing on two decades of security experience to explore how practitioners can move past early resistance, build real fluency with AI tools, and find a working model where humans and AI operate together.Key Topics:Why early AI tools left security teams skeptical and what has genuinely changed since thenHow Ken used AI to accelerate detection engineering without sacrificing analyst oversightWhy AI is best understood as an eager, overconfident intern that still needs supervisionThe importance of hands-on experimentation over passive observation when learning AIHow collaboration and shared prompting practices are shaping how practitioners learnWhy security analysts who engage with AI now will not be left behind as the field evolvesThe case for AI as a tool of empowerment, not replacementAt Defender Fridays, we delve into the dynamic world of information security, exploring its defensive side with seasoned professionals from across the industry. Our aim is simple yet ambitious: to foster a collaborative space where ideas flow freely, experiences are shared, and knowledge expands.About Our GuestKen Westin is a Senior Solutions Engineer at LimaCharlie with nearly two decades in the cybersecurity industry. A former startup founder who built tools to track criminal activity, Ken has worked across SIEM, EDR, and detection engineering throughout his career. He also teaches at the college level, where AI and cybersecurity are increasingly intertwined disciplines.Register for Live SessionsJoin us every Friday at 10:30am PT for live, interactive discussions with industry experts. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just curious about the field, these sessions offer an engaging dialogue between our guests, hosts, and you, our audience.Register here: https://limacharlie.io/defender-fridaysSubscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the notification bell to never miss a live session or catch up on past episodes on our website!Sponsored by LimaCharlieThis episode is brought to you by LimaCharlie, the Agentic SecOps Workspace (ASW), where AI agents operate security infrastructure using the same controls and authority as human analysts, with every action visible, governed, and auditable.Why LimaCharlie?Eliminate vendor sprawl and tool complexityDeploy and scale effortlessly on native multi-tenant architectureReduce costs with intelligent data routing and free 1-year retentionBuild custom solutions with 100+ security capabilities on-demandAccelerate response with agentic AI that acts directly within predefined workflowsTry the Agentic SecOps Workspace free: https://limacharlie.ioLearn more: https://docs.limacharlie.ioFollow LimaCharlieSign up for free: https://limacharlie.ioLinkedIn: / limacharlieioX: https://x.com/limacharlieioCommunity Discourse: https://community.limacharlie.com/Host: Maxime Lamothe-Brassard - Founder at LimaCharlieGuest: Ken Westin - Senior Solutions Engineer at LimaCharlie