AI Is Not Replacing Us—It’s Elevating Us

Summary

At DigiKey, we’ve always embraced innovation with a healthy dose of pragmatism. When artificial intelligence began reshaping industries, the question on everyone’s mind was simple: What’s in it for me? It’s a fair question—and one that deserves a thoughtful answer. AI is not just a tool; it’s a shift in how we work, think and collaborate. Together, let’s reimagine what we think is possible with AI when it’s empowered to make autonomous decisions safely, guided by human-defined guardrails.
 

Be the human in the loop

AI can do remarkable things. It can write code, summarize logs and even diagnose system issues. Despite its numerous benefits, one thing that we can’t expect AI to do for us is understand the big picture. It doesn’t grasp the ripple effects of a system crash on a Tuesday morning or the trust lost when invoices fail to send.
 
That’s why we need to stay in the loop. Not just to approve what AI generates, but to ask the right questions. How will this impact our customers? Is this the right solution? Who else is affected? What’s the risk if we get it wrong—and are we okay with that risk?
 
AI can’t read the room. It doesn’t sense tension in a meeting or understand the stress a customer feels when their production line goes down. It can’t weigh nuance or navigate politics. That’s our job. We bring empathy, judgment, credibility and experience to the table. We are the translators—between systems and people and now, between AI and reality.
 

Your vision can’t be replaced

Let’s be honest: AI will take over certain parts of our jobs. Many repetitive, non-value-add tasks are already being automated. These tasks were never the source of our true value. Execution can be automated. Vision, credibility and expertise cannot.
 
What makes us indispensable is our ability to think critically, lead with empathy, adapt under pressure and create original solutions. AI doesn’t walk into the decision room. It doesn’t face VPs during a crisis or calm a tense meeting. It doesn’t win trust. We do.
 
Our value lies in knowing what’s actually wrong—not just what the error message says. It’s in seeing how one change ripples across systems, teams and customers. It’s in managing chaos when things break. These are the skills that AI can’t replicate.
 

We’ve been through this before

Every major technological shift has brought uncertainty. When Uber launched, the taxi industry was blindsided. Before cars, thousands of people in New York were employed just to clean up after horses. Those jobs disappeared—but new ones emerged.
 
DigiKey has always been on the leading edge of technology. We’ve moved from print catalogues to e-commerce, from physical servers to the cloud, from monoliths to microservices and from reactive support to predictive monitoring. Every new tech innovation DigiKey has embraced required adaptation. And each time, we came out stronger.
 
We’re not eliminating work—we’re evolving roles and upskilling our team members. Technology is becoming more connected, more layered and more dependent on smart human insight where it matters most. This is our opportunity to reimagine what’s possible with AI—not just to automate, but to innovate.
 

AI in action: Five AI-powered security solutions at DigiKey

At DigiKey, we’ve already seen how AI can transform security. These tools don’t replace our teams—they empower them. They allow us to respond faster, reduce risk and focus our people on higher-value work.
 
1. Human
Malicious bots were hammering our site—up to 1.7 billion hits per quarter. Search functionality was suffering. We implemented HUMAN’s bot mitigation platform, which, over time and complexity, made the bot’s job far more expensive. The results were immediate: a threefold reduction in bot traffic, and today, we’re blocking over 100 times more malicious activity than before. HUMAN now provides complete protection across our web and mobile platforms.
 
2. Sift
Chargebacks were threatening our ability to process payments. We deployed Sift, which scores every account creation and transaction using thousands of signals. In 2024 alone, we stopped nearly $50 million in fraudulent orders and saved 934 hours of manual review. In 2025, we’ve already identified more than 5,000 fraudulent customers. Sift’s real-time scoring updates within milliseconds, allowing us to stay ahead of fraud instead of reacting to it.
 
3. Abnormal AI
Legacy email filters weren’t cutting it. We brought in Abnormal AI, which analyzes sender history, message content and attachments to detect threats. It uses three models to sort inbound threats, promotional mail and phishing attempts. In just three months, it blocked 825 invoice and payment fraud messages—attacks that are rare but highly lucrative. Abnormal AI now auto-remediates threats before they reach our inboxes.
 
4. Snyk
Our previous code scanning tool had a high false positive rate and low developer confidence. We switched to Snyk, which uses AI to scan code faster and recommend fixes. Developers can apply corrections with a single click. Snyk also identifies vulnerabilities in third-party libraries, adding an extra layer of protection to our codebase.
 
5. PingOne Protect
We saw a spike in account takeover attempts. After implementing multifactor authentication, we added PingOne Protect. It baselines user behavior—location, device, login patterns—and assigns risk scores. Low-risk users pass through. Medium-risk users face step-up authentication. High-risk users will soon be blocked entirely. This layered approach is helping us keep legitimate users in and bad actors out.
 
These are just a handful of practical examples of how our team has turned to AI-powered tools to protect our customers and free up DigiKey staff to focus on what matters most.
 

Empowered by AI, driven by people

AI has always been transformative. It’s helping us scale our capabilities without steep learning curves or added headcount. It’s a force multiplier—enabling teams to move faster and smarter. And it’s bringing teams together. Tools like Sift have united our accounting and cybersecurity teams in a shared mission to protect the business.
 
We’re also entering a new era of autonomous decision-making. AI can now make decisions in real time—within the guardrails we define. That’s not about giving up control. It’s about designing systems that are safe, scalable and smart.
 
At DigiKey, we’re not just using AI—we’re shaping how it’s used. We’re staying focused on outcomes, on people and on what matters most. The future of IT isn’t AI. It’s us.