KnowBe4 has announced the appointment of Harlan Parrott as VP of AI Innovation, following the company’s 10-year anniversary celebration of pioneering Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity. As VP, Parrott will lead the AI Center of Excellence by overseeing the company’s product suite and the expansion of AI capabilities within its internal operations. Since the release of the beta version of AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Defense Agents) a decade ago, KnowBe4 has successfully strengthened its role as the only agentic provider in the industry that trains both humans and agents. Knowbe4’s AIDA core functions include:
Custom phishing templates creation based on current attack vectors
Quizz generation based on organisations’ specific security and compliance policies
Automated remedial training for employees who need more support
Customised deepfakes creation to help train employees on this emerging threat
For 15 years, KnowBe4 has been protecting users from complex threats before AI became the foundation of cybersecurity. This comes with many years of user behaviour and threat intelligence data that enabled the company to create a system that puts together phishing, vishing and smishing into multi-faceted, AI simulated social engineering attacks. Today, the company has created a trusted solution for more than 70,000 customers through its seven specialised agents that automates Human Risk Management (HRM).
Greg Kras, Chief Product Officer of KnowBe4, said: “At KnowBe4, we’ve shaped the future of AI-driven risk management to deliver smarter, faster and more effective human risk management. While others are just beginning to explore the potential of AI, we are celebrating ten years of in-market proven innovation. With seven agents already available, and more on the way, we are enabling security teams to move away from manual administration and focus on strategic risk decisions that truly move the needle.”
With Parrot leading the AI Center of Excellence, his focus will be on empowering teams to build and use innovative AI solutions, improving internal efficiency, and product development. KnowBe4 recognises that AI is a transformative force in the cybersecurity landscape and thus prioritises the implementation of cutting-edge AI solutions into its operations and offerings.
Harlan Parrott, newly appointed VP of AI innovation at KnowBe4, said: “The intersection of AI and cybersecurity is the most critical challenge in our industry today. I look forward to developing KnowBe4’s use of AI as we commit to embedding advanced solutions across the organisation; from accelerating our operations to developing new, powerful defences against the next generation of AI-driven threats.”
With more than 20 years of experience building SaaS and cloud platforms, Parrott brings a distinct operations-focused viewpoint to the potential of AI.
Bryan Palma, CEO of KnowBe4, said: “Harlan’s appointment marks a key milestone for KnowBe4 as we enhance our commitment to Artificial Intelligence. His deep expertise in machine learning and cybersecurity are precisely what is needed to lead our AI Center of Excellence. Harlan’s vision will be instrumental in leading the next frontier of AI across our organisation.”
