Happy new year 2026
Dec 31st, 2025 by Jesper Kråkhede
New Year´s Eve again. Another year older and, I am happy to say, still not ill. My body reminds me of my age every morning, but it works, and I don´t take that for granted.
This was the year the machines started to work. Not just answer questions, but act. Agents that triage alerts, write code, handle cases and talk to each other. And it makes me think about my own role.
For thirty years, knowledge workers like me have been paid for what we know and for doing the analysis. Now a machine can write the first draft of the analysis in seconds. So are we seniors becoming obsolete?
I don´t think so, but our role is changing. The machine knows a lot. It doesn´t know which customer is lying to itself, which risk the board will accept, or when the textbook answer is wrong. Experience, judgement and the ability to ask the right question are worth more, not less, when answers are cheap. But we must use the tools. The senior who refuses will be replaced. Not by the machine, but by a junior who uses it.
And speaking of change. After all these years in security, I have decided to start something new on the side. I am going to build a small distillery and make gin.
Don´t worry, I´m not leaving security. A still has a lot in common with a SOC: careful monitoring, strict rules and the occasional alarm in the middle of the night.
The dachshunds have already appointed themselves head of quality control. One sniffs the juniper. One guards the door. And one is convinced that everything that comes out of the still is a treat. It isn´t. They will be on every label in any case. Stay tuned for this.
Happy new year, and greetings from the future distillery dogs!