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Bulk Barn IT and security head talks cybersecurity, AI, and women in tech

Jassi Kaur on leveraging mentorship and education, being proactive with cybersecurity, and keeping the human element when implementing AI.

Jassi Kaur on leveraging mentorship and education, being proactive with cybersecurity, and keeping the human element when implementing AI.
Jassi Kaur on leveraging mentorship and education, being proactive with cybersecurity, and keeping the human element when implementing AI.

As part of their Leadership Live Canada series, CIO.com Communities Executive Director Lee Rennick sat down with Jassi Kaur, Bulk Barn’s Head of IT and Security, to talk about leveraging mentorship and education, being proactive with cybersecurity, and keeping the human element when implementing AI.

Here are some conversational highlights.

On getting more women in tech with mentorship and education

One Globe and Mail report found that only 24% of Canadian tech workers are women — a number that’s unfortunately decreased recently. What’s more, the number of women in tech has pretty much stagnated in the last 20 years. While Kaur sees progress, aka more women in tech roles, she still sees more work to be done:

“I think organizations need to get on board when it comes to hiring and training women for leadership roles — not just on paper. It has to be something that needs to be educated throughout the organization along with bias and ways to change the status quo.”

“Women in tech also need to understand that bias. They should teach and mentor upcoming leaders on how to manage this bias, communicate, and change the status quo. I’ve noticed that a lot of the females when they’re in these positions, when it comes to other females, I don’t see that same type of mentorship, whereas you can see it with [their] male counterparts.”

On being proactive versus reactive with cybersecurity

What’s better? Feeling prepared or scrambling when something actually happens? Kaur says the former, of course. She recommends:

“IT and security go hand and hand — they always did, they always will. And I think every organization, that challenge that I’m seeing with the organization when it comes to security, is the reactive approach. They’re aware of the challenges, they’re aware of what’s happening within the organization, they’re aware of what’s happening around the world, but that it doesn’t really get applied until something happens. We’re reactive versus proactive.”

“One thing I think that really needs to happen is improved [education]. I think we need to improve educating every single employee of the company on potential threats. Independent on how much we spend on security, [one] company will never be safe until everyone understands the implications of opening that one personal attachment.”

On AI and being selective

“When it comes to GenAI, my biggest challenge I see is the data privacy, accuracy, risks to cybersecurity, and obviously the cost associated with it overall. I think the organization it’s not only important to look at the GenAI platform, but to have a use case for their own business to see how [it is] going to help the stakeholders, including employees and customers. Is it really going to help the organization? And if it’s not helping the organization, do we really need to implode because everyone else is using it? 

“There still has to be that human element and transparency when we’re implementing AI platforms. I think that is where the organizations might lose that focus.”

Watch the entire interview on CIO Leadership Live Canada.

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Written By

Veronica Ott is a freelance writer and digital marketer with a specialization in finance and business. As a CPA with experience in the industry, she's able to provide unique insight into various monetary, financial and economic topics. When Veronica isn't writing, you can find her watching the latest films!

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