Why AI Won’t Replace Your SOC Team – A Reality Check for Security Leaders

We believe the latest research by Gartner has made one thing clear: the vision of a fully autonomous SOC remains unrealistic. Although automation and artificial intelligence (AI) greatly increase efficiency, the Gartner report noted that, by 2030, 75% of SOC teams experience erosion in foundational security analysis skills due to overdependence on automation and AI.* Security leaders must focus on AI as an enhancement, not a replacement, for human expertise.

Why a Fully Autonomous SOC Remains a Myth

Let’s be real—SOC teams are overwhelmed. Analysts face a never-ending flood of alerts, increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, and a persistent talent shortage. AI seems like the perfect fix, but over-automation creates new risks.

The real challenge isn’t choosing between AI and humans; it’s about understanding where each excels. Security is all about context. While AI is great at crunching data, it can’t:

• Understand unique business risks and impacts
• Adapt to organization-specific security policies
• Make nuanced judgment calls like experienced analysts

How Netenrich's Adaptive MDR Aligns with Findings by Gartner on AI in SOCs

The Gartner report noted that while traditional SOC analysts may possess foundational knowledge in these areas, the creation of a high-quality AI-driven product, along with its continuous tuning and maintenance, necessitates professional-level expertise. This advanced skill set is crucial for ensuring immediate effectiveness and sustained success over the long term.

Netenrich’s Adaptive MDR aligns with this approach by delivering a data-driven, AI-assisted solution that ensures continuous threat monitoring while empowering human analysts to make informed security decisions. Netenrich's Adaptive MDR platform changes this by providing a data-driven, AI-assisted approach that enhances visibility, contextualizes threats and reduces response time. The solution? Not just AI, but intelligent security operations that blend real-time data with human expertise.

Netenrich's Approach: Striking the Right Balance Between AI and Human Expertise

Netenrich’s Adaptive MDR exemplifies this balance by leveraging AI to enhance, not replace, the capabilities of the security teams. The future of security operations isn’t about choosing AI over humans—it’s about creating an environment where:

• AI handles repetitive tasks so analysts can focus on complex threats
• Teams maintain critical thinking and analysis skills
• Security operations scale effectively without sacrificing quality
• Analysts proactively anticipate threats instead of reacting after an incident occurs

The Risks of Overreliance on AI

AI is a powerful tool but depending on it too much can create blind spots and vulnerabilities that only human oversight can catch.

1. False Sense of Security: AI cannot replace human intuition. Relying solely on automation may lead organizations to overlook critical manual analysis and validation.
2. Bias in Decision-Making: AI models reflect the data they’re trained on. If that data is biased, security decisions may be skewed, leading to inaccurate threat detection.
3. Lack of Explainability: AI models often function as black boxes. Without clear reasoning behind their decisions, SOC teams may struggle to justify responses, especially in compliance-heavy industries.
4. Model Drift: AI models degrade over time. Without regular updates and human oversight, detection accuracy declines, increasing false positives and missed threats.
5. Lack of Context and Human Judgment: AI can analyze vast amounts of data but lacks real-world context, intuition, and strategic decision-making that human analysts provide. Security threats are often complex, deceptive, and require human validation.
6. Security Requires Collaboration and Strategy: Threat response is not just about detection—it requires cross-team collaboration, risk-based decision-making, and policy enforcement. AI can enhance automation but cannot replace the need for a unified, strategic security approach across SOC, IT, and leadership

AI is a powerful enabler, but it shouldn’t replace human expertise. The most effective SOCs use AI to automate routine tasks while keeping analysts at the center of decision-making. Security is an art and a science. The key to effective security operations is AI Human Intelligence + Adaptive Security Practices.

How Netenrich Can Help

Netenrich’s Adaptive MDR provides the perfect blend of automation and expert-driven decision-making, helping SOC teams scale, reduce alert fatigue, and improve threat response. The most successful SOCs will be the ones that use AI to enhance their teams' capabilities, not replace them.

Want to learn more? Download the Gartner Report to explore how leading organizations strike the right balance between AI and human expertise.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

^*Source: Gartner^®, “Predict 2025: There Will Never Be an Autonomous SOC,” Pete Shoard, Kevin Schmidt, Jeremy D'Hoinne, Eric Ahlm, John Collins, 18 December 2024

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