The Future of Security Operations: Understanding AI SOC Agents

The cybersecurity landscape is evolving rapidly, and security operations teams are under
constant pressure to scale their capabilities while managing increasingly complex threats. A
recent innovation is gaining significant attention in the industry: AI SOC agents.

What Are AI SOC Agents?

According to recent Gartner® research, cybersecurity leaders must closely monitor the evolution
of AI SOC agents, a group of technologies designed to augment common security operations
tasks. AI SOC agents present an opportunity to transform security operations by using AI to
assist human operators in performing common tasks.

The research, titled Innovation Insight: AI SOC Agents (Eric Ahlm, Jeremy D'Hoinne, 16
October 2025), in our opinion, provides crucial guidance for cybersecurity leaders evaluating this
emerging technology category.

The Challenge: Scaling Security Operations

Every CISO faces the same fundamental challenge: how to scale operations to keep pace with
an ever-changing threat landscape. The research notes that "Workflow augmentation, or
performing more operational tasks without hiring new team members is the prevailing
strategy to scale."

At 7AI, we've seen this challenge firsthand with our customers. Security teams are overwhelmed
with alerts, investigations take too long, and skilled analysts are in short supply. This is precisely
why we believe AI-augmented security operations represent the future of SOC capabilities.

How AI SOC Agents Work

From our understanding, the Gartner research identifies several key deployment methods for
AI SOC agents:

• Simplified Common Knowledge Access - Making large bodies of security knowledge quickly
  accessible through AI
• Simplified Systems Interface - Using natural language to interact with security systems
  without requiring deep technical expertise
• Generative Capabilities - Creating useful content for reporting, incident summarization, and
  response playbooks
• Observational Learning - Understanding organizational specifics and providing insights for
  oversight and management

Download the Full Report

In our opinion, get the complete analysis on AI SOC Agents and learn:

• Detailed evaluation criteria for selecting AI SOC solutions
• Common use cases and expected benefits
• Risk factors and implementation considerations
• Alternative approaches to consider
• Complete vendor landscape and market overview

Download: Innovation Insight: AI SOC Agents →

Real-World Use Cases

From our understanding, the research highlights several compelling use cases where AI SOC
agents can deliver immediate value:

• Alert Triage - Automatically prioritizing incoming alerts using threat intelligence and
  environmental context
• Augmented Investigations - Enriching alerts, mapping attack paths, and generating
  investigation timelines
• Threat Hunting - Developing hypotheses based on organizational data and threat
  intelligence
• Incident Summarization - Creating executive-ready reports from complex investigation
  data
• Response Recommendations - Generating containment advice and executable
  playbooks

Why 7AI Built Our Platform Around These Principles

We founded 7AI specifically to address the limitations described in this research. Our AI agents
are purpose-built to augment security operations teams, not replace them. We've seen
customers achieve:

• 95-99% reduction in false positives through intelligent alert triage
• 7-day deployment versus the industry standard of 6+ months
• Scale investigations without adding headcount

Our approach aligns with what Gartner identifies as critical: the technology should "augment
existing staff" rather than promise full automation that isn't yet achievable.

Important Considerations

The research, in our opinion, is clear that AI SOC agents are not a magic solution. Organizations
need to:

✓ Have sufficient existing security operations to warrant augmentation technology
✓ Identify specific activities that would benefit most from AI assistance
✓ Establish success metrics before implementation
✓ Maintain human oversight to catch AI errors or hallucinations

As Gartner® notes, "Today's capabilities of AI SOC agents are not a replacement for
human operators, but they can support common use cases such as alert triage,
investigation, threat hunting, and more, by creating AI-augmented workflows.."

What This Means for Your Security Operations

If you're evaluating AI SOC agents, the research recommends you to:

1. Determine if your security operations organization has enough headcount to warrant augmentation technology, and which specific activities or functions would be ideal primary candidates for AI SOC agents.
2. Identify success metrics that determine how the capabilities of AI SOC agents can improve on specific objectives and provide enough operational gains to offset the cost of the solution.
3. Evaluate AI SOC agents based on their ability to improve existing workflows and SOC functions, rather than evaluating product features and functions.

The 7AI Difference

At 7AI, we're honored to be recognized as a Representative Provider in this emerging space. Our platform is built on the principle that AI should enhance human capability, not attempt to replace the critical thinking and creativity that security analysts bring to their work.

We've designed our agents to deploy in days, not months, and to deliver immediate, measurable value through automated alert triage, investigation augmentation, and rapid threat response.

Take the Next Step

Download the Complete Research Report
Get the full Innovation Insight: AI SOC Agents report.