How knowledge articulation in GenAI supports security awareness, learning, and collaboration—and how to fully unlock its potential

GenAI models like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and DALL-E are wowing the world with their content creation powers.

Many of us don’t realize the key to this creativity is knowledge articulation.

GenAI’s skills rely on knowledge articulation, which is often overlooked as all eyes are on the output.

But we need to keep it in mind, especially since GenAI will inevitably be used more and more for security awareness and human risk management.

In this blog we’ll explore how knowledge articulation works in a security awareness context, and how being mindful of knowledge articulation can drive successful security awareness and human risk management efforts.

What is knowledge articulation?

Knowledge articulation is the process of turning one type of knowledge into another.

Those types are tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge.

Tacit knowledge is your grandmother’s ability to make her phenomenal pasta sauce recipe without measuring or weighing. She knows when to stir it and when it’s done. She **just knows**.

Explicit knowledge is the recipe card she finally gave you (after much begging), with clear step-by-step instructions and measurements.

How is knowledge articulation different from personalization?

GenAI’s personalization of security awareness content is impressive. We discuss this in our blog about GenAI and content.

But how does personalization differ from knowledge articulation?

We’re using balloon animals to explain. (Humor us.)

Let’s imagine a master balloon artist, crafting personalized animals for guests at a wedding.

Irina, who loves lions and the color green, gets a majestic green lion balloon. 

Turtle-obsessed Ranjit, who has a penchant for blue, receives—you guessed it—a vibrant sky-blue turtle.

What are we getting at here?

Personalization is the balloon color and design. It’s cool, but it needs the balloon artist’s breath to take shape. 

Knowledge articulation is the breath that makes green lions and blue turtles possible. It shapes the “what” into something meaningful, making a real impact on people (unlike boring, formless air).

Knowledge articulation at work

1. GenAI uses knowledge articulation to spot ‘hidden’ risks

GenAI can analyze vast amounts of data and identify patterns humans might miss, uncovering potential risks lurking in tacit knowledge.

This ability is invaluable in healthcare, where it can identify patterns that might indicate early signs of disease or potential complications—before symptoms appear.

In this vein, CybSafe’s security-trained LLM is being harnessed to give prompts and recommendations to clients’ security teams. We’re expecting to launch this feature into beta soon.

2. GenAI knowledge articulation bolsters learning

GenAI can transform complex policies and procedures into easily digestible formats. 

This can make important knowledge more accessible, leading to better awareness and decision-making.

GenAI can adapt learning materials to keep engagement high and aid understanding in education for certain contexts and age groups.

This is why CybSafe uses a specialized large language model (LLM) to provide localized, translated content to customers, for more impactful security awareness.

3. GenAI uses knowledge articulation to grow, together

Collaboration and knowledge-sharing are essential to organizational success. GenAI is the perfect central repository to capture and share best practices and lessons learned across teams and departments.

For example, GenAI is used to analyze huge amounts of customer feedback and market data, identifying trends and gaps in the market. It then connects these insights with internal teams, sparking innovation and new products and services.

CybSafe’s LLM will soon be bringing relevant insights and expertise to light, helping customers to foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. 

Three golden rules

93% of organizations are thinking about using GenAI, or already using it. 

But using something and understanding something are not the same thing. 

What do those of us in cybersecurity and human risk management need to keep in mind knowledge articulation wise when using GenAI?

Think about these three things:

1. Collaborate. The strongest systems combine the distinct strengths of GenAI and humans. People have critical thinking and emotional intelligence that GenAI can only dream of.
2. Prioritize explainable AI models to ensure fairness. Build trust with people and stakeholders by allowing human experts to scrutinize outputs.
3. Ensure accurate, unbiased, and relevant data is used to train GenAI models. Garbage in, garbage out.

Conclusion

Bridging the gap between implicit knowledge and explicit understanding empowers people and organizations to make better security decisions. That’s what makes knowledge articulation so important.

But, like we said, using something isn’t the same as understanding it. Cybersecurity practitioners need a good grasp on the finer points of GenAI in security awareness.

With that in mind, check out these next:

1. Watch this webinar: What (Gen)AI means for security awareness in 2024, with Oz Alashe (CybSafe CEO and Founder), and Jinan Budge (VP, Forrester). Look out for: A conversation on using GenAI to communicate security policies and best practices effectively to people.

2. Download our GenAI whitepaper. Look out for: A meaty discussion on the use of GenAI-powered chatbots to provide real-time support and guidance to employees on security-related queries.

3. Check out our blogs on GenAI and behaviour prediction and GenAI and content creation.

Knowledge articulation is the unseen workhorse of GenAI. We hope you think about it a little more as you GenAI becomes an increasing part of cybersecurity, and the world in general.