Competency is the human skill needed to build, manage, and safely use AI systems. It includes understanding data quality, model limits, system configuration, access control, monitoring, and how to respond when an AI tool behaves unexpectedly.
In cyber security, competency matters because AI is only as safe as the people operating it. Poorly trained teams may expose sensitive data, misread outputs, or deploy tools without proper permissions and logging. Attackers often exploit these gaps by targeting weak approval processes, prompting users to trust fabricated AI output, or abusing poorly managed AI integrations and cloud credentials. Strong competency helps defenders validate model behavior, spot unusual activity, keep humans in the loop, and apply secure governance so AI improves productivity without expanding the attack surface.