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Emerging AI Tools Can Transform SOC Analysts’ Jobs But Require New Sets of Skills
Decades ago, a certain movie franchise sounded the alarm on the perils of artificial intelligence: “It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop … ever.” This once-fictional terminator has now become a reality in cybersecurity. Armies of AI bots are relentlessly attacking and defending enterprises as bad actors and security teams try to outmaneuver each other with technology.
As data breaches and advanced persistent threats grow in sophistication, a new generation of AI solutions has emerged – ranging from Darktrace, IBM, Splunk, Microsoft and Google to more recent entrants such as Qevlar AI, which emphasizes fully automated agentic AI investigation capabilities.
Collectively, these AI-enhanced tools promise to handle vast quantities of alerts in near real time, freeing security operations center analysts from repetitive “alert triage.” In a job market known for its talent shortage and skills gap – with demands for manual review of telemetry growing – the shift to AI-based solutions represents both an opportunity and a call to action. While AI can tackle grunt work with remarkable accuracy, it also demands a new set of skills from the cybersecurity workforce.
Why AI Tools Are Becoming a Necessity
The constant barrage of alerts in modern SOCs can be overwhelming for multiple factors including:
- High alert volume: Thousands of daily events and incidents require real-time filtering and prioritization.
- Staff shortages: A persistent lack of skilled professionals makes manual alert reviews untenable.
- Growing complexity: Cyberthreats have evolved beyond simple malware attacks to sophisticated campaigns using AI tech.
AI technology has been used in cybersecurity solutions for years, but latest buzz in the world of security operations is agentic AI, which provides greater automation and the ability to make decisions, plan actions and learn from experiences to achieve specific goals. AI-driven platforms – whether you call them “agentic AI,” “automation” or “machine learning-based” solutions – offer the speed, consistency and round-the-clock vigilance that humans alone cannot match.
The Changing Role of SOC Analysts
With the growing adoption of AI to automate first- and second-level investigations, the scope of a SOC analyst’s role is shifting. Instead of being reactive and sorting through endless false positives, analysts can now concentrate on proactive threat hunting. They are called upon to identify patterns and potential exploits before an attack occurs, acting on alerts that AI has already filtered and triaged.
As these mundane tasks are automated, human specialists will see a great demand for advanced analysis of incident response strategies related to business objectives. This calls for more critical thinking and creativity – capabilities that AI, at least for now, cannot replicate. SOC analysts also need more cross-team collaboration with other IT and business units. These teams can communicate the findings AI tools generate, helping leadership make risk-informed decisions. Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical findings clearly have become as vital as technical prowess.
Moving forward, the most important asset for a SOC analyst is a continuously learning mindset, given that both threats and AI capabilities evolve at breakneck speed. Analysts must stay proficient with established SIEM solutions as well as new agentic AI platforms, integrating data from multiple sources into a cohesive defense strategy. They also need strong incident response, forensics and data interpretation skills to separate real threats from benign anomalies and effectively advise on risk.
A Broader Horizon for Cybersecurity Professionals
Rather than displacing humans, advanced AI is restructuring job responsibilities and elevating the importance of human judgment. In many cases, the introduction of automation creates enhanced growth in career paths such as:
- Threat intelligence specialists, using AI-driven insights to forecast and proactively mitigate future attacks;
- Cybersecurity strategists, overseeing architecture and policy decisions that unify technical defense with business goals;
- Ethical hackers and red teamers, thinking like an adversary to outsmart AI through penetration testing while using AI tools to automate standard defenses; and
- AI security engineers, designing and maintaining the algorithms and data pipelines that fuel agentic SOC solutions.
With these emerging specialty emphases on established roles, professionals who adapt to working with AI will likely see more upward mobility. The focus shifts to high-level thinking, analytical judgment and creativity that can’t be replaced by even the most sophisticated platform.
Agentic AI solutions handle repetitive tasks at machine speed, which alleviates many of the routine burdens that weigh heavily on security teams. However, these advancements also require analysts to sharpen new skills, stay technically agile and embrace a more strategic view of security operations. For cybersecurity professionals looking to future-proof their careers, investing in analytical expertise, communication skills and a willingness to learn AI tools is not optional. It’s the path forward.