With $5.5 trillion in global AI risks exposed and 700,000 U.S. workers in need of reskilling, four new AI certifications and the CISO v4 certification will help bridge the gap between AI adoption and workforce readiness.
EC-Council, creator of the world-renowned Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential and a global leader in applied cybersecurity education, today announced the Enterprise AI Credential Suite. This included the debut of four new role-based AI certifications, along with Certified CISO v4, a completely overhauled executive cyber leadership program. These two launches represent the single largest expansion of EC-Council’s portfolio in its 25-year history. It addresses structural gaps that no single tool, platform, or policy can solve alone. AI is expanding faster than the workforce trained to run, protect, and manage it.
This launch aligns with U.S. priorities for workforce development and applied AI education outlined in Executive Order 14179, the workforce development pillar of the July 2025 AI Action Plan, and Executive Orders 14277 and 14278, which emphasize expanding AI education pathways and building job-relevant skills across professional and skilled trades roles, at a time when organizations are moving AI from pilot projects to daily operations and decision-making.
The urgency is clear both in terms of economic exposure and workforce. IDC estimates that unmanaged AI risks could reach $5.5 trillion worldwide, while Bain & Company predicts there is an AI and cybersecurity retraining gap of 700,000 people in the United States. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Economic Forum (WEF) also point to workforce readiness, rather than access to technology, as the primary constraint to AI-driven productivity and growth, especially as adoption accelerates across sectors.
Alongside this adoption, security pressures are also increasing. While 87% of organizations are reporting AI attacks, generated AI traffic has surged 890%, the attack surface has expanded, and many teams are still learning how to defend against it, AI capabilities remain concentrated, with 67% of AI talent concentrated in just 15 US cities, and women making up 28% of the AI workforce. , highlighting the persistence of gaps in access and participation as demand increases.
“AI is moving from experimentation to infrastructure, and the workforce needs to move with it,” said Jay Babisi, EC-Council Group President. “These programs are built to provide professionals with practical capabilities across deployment, security, and governance, so organizations can scale AI with confidence and clear accountability.”
Certification according to role
The Enterprise AI Credential Suite is structured to reflect how AI capabilities are developed in practice. Artificial Intelligence Essentials (AIE) serves as a baseline and builds fluency and responsible usage of practical AI across roles. This is supported by EC-Council’s own Adopt. protect. govern. (ADG) Framework. Define how to operationalize AI at scale in real-world environments.
Deployment: Prepare your team for a planned AI deployment with preparation and safeguards.
Defense: Protect AI systems from threats such as prompt injection, data poisoning, model abuse, and AI supply chain compromise.
Governance: Build accountability, oversight, and risk management into AI systems from the beginning
Within this structure, the four new certifications directly address specific workforce needs across the AI lifecycle.
Artificial Intelligence Essentials (AIE) builds foundational AI literacy. Certified AI Program Managers (CAIPMs) put AI strategies into action and align teams, governance, and delivery to drive measurable ROI and enterprise-scale intelligence. Certified Offensive AI Security Professionals (COASP) build elite capabilities to test LLM vulnerabilities, simulate exploits, and protect AI infrastructure that hardens enterprises against emerging threats. The Certified Responsible AI Governance and Ethics (CRAGE) certification focuses on responsible AI, governance, and ethics at an enterprise scale according to NIST/ISO.
Along with the new AI certification, Certified CISO v4 updates executive cyber leadership education for AI-driven risk environments, enhancing leadership readiness as intelligent systems become part of core business operations and security decision-making.
“Security leaders are now responsible for systems that learn quickly, adapt, and influence outcomes,” Babisi added. “Certified CISO v4 empowers leaders to clearly manage AI-driven risks, strengthen governance, and make informed decisions when responsibility is at stake.”
The portfolio also builds on years of work with government and defense agencies, including EC-Council’s existing Department of Defense 8140 Baseline Certification certification, as AI security and workforce readiness gain national importance.
Visit the EC-Council AI course library to explore all training and certification opportunities.
About EC Council:
EC-Council is the founder of the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) program and a leader in cybersecurity education. Founded in 2001, EC-Council’s mission is to provide high-quality training and certification to cybersecurity professionals to protect organizations from cyber threats. EC-Council offers more than 200 certifications and degrees in a variety of cybersecurity fields, including forensics, security analysis, threat intelligence, and information security.
EC-Council, an ISO/IEC 17024 certified organization, has certified more than 350,000 professionals worldwide, from government agencies to Fortune 100 companies. EC-Council is the gold standard in cybersecurity certification trusted by the U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Navy, Air Force, and major global companies.
For more information, please visit www.eccouncil.org.
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