From Triage to Threat Hunts: How AI Accelerates SecOps

"We now understand that the value of AI is not in replacing the operator. It is in solving the math problem of defense. Infrastructure complexity scales exponentially while headcount scales linearly. This mismatch previously forced teams to make statistical compromises and sample alerts rather than solving them. Agentic AI corrects this imbalance. It decouples investigation capacity from human availability and fundamentally alters the daily workflow of the security operations team."

"Alert triage currently functions as a filter. SOC analysts review basic telemetry to decide if an alert warrants a full investigation. This manual gatekeeping creates a bottleneck where low-fidelity signals are ignored to preserve bandwidth. Now imagine if an alert that comes in as low severity and is pushed down the priority queue ends up being a real threat. This is where missed alerts lead to breaches."

"If you work in security operations, the concept of the AI SOC agent is likely familiar. Early narratives promised total autonomy. Vendors seized on the idea of the "Autonomous SOC" and suggested a future where algorithms replaced analysts. That future has not arrived. We have not seen mass layoffs or empty security operations centers. We have instead seen the emergence of a practical reality."

AI has not eliminated human roles in security operations but has changed how analysts allocate their time. Infrastructure complexity scales exponentially while headcount scales linearly, forcing prior compromises and sampled alert handling. Agentic AI decouples investigation capacity from human availability and scales analysis to match infrastructure growth. Automated systems ingest telemetry from EDR, identity, email, cloud, SaaS, and network sources to create unified context. The machine layer investigates every alert with human-level accuracy, correlates data, and re-evaluates severity. Low-fidelity alerts can be elevated instantly, allowing analysts to focus on hunting malicious actors and high-value investigations.

Read at The Hacker News