How AI Agents Are Transforming Incident Response in Modern SOCs

AI agents are reshaping incident response in the SOC by reducing the time between detection and response action. Traditionally, once an alert fires, it waits in a queue for a Tier-1 analyst to review it. That analyst then spends time gathering context from various tools, writing up their findings, and escalating when necessary. AI agents eliminate this lag by performing that process autonomously, at machine speed.

What is an AI agent in the SOC?

An AI agent is more than a chatbot. It’s a purpose-built system that:

• Watches for alerts across tools like SIEMs, EDRs, cloud detection and response, identity, email security, and more
  
  
• Gathers context in real time (e.g., user behavior, file execution, IP reputation)
  
  
• Performs reasoning to assess risk and determines whether the alert is a true positive or false positive
  
  
• Drafts a detailed incident summary

In essence, it performs the Tier-1 and Tier-2  investigation workload instantly, consistently, and at scale.

Impact on incident response:

• Immediate investigations: AI starts investigating the moment the alert is generated.
  
  
• Better context, faster: Agents pull data from across tools faster than a human ever could.
  
  
• Structured conclusions: Instead of unstructured notes, AI provides formatted summaries, risk ratings, and clear escalation paths.
  
  
• Fewer missed threats: Since agents investigate 100% of alerts, suspicious activity doesn’t slip through the cracks due to human backlog.

Human-AI collaboration:

AI agents don’t eliminate analysts, but instead make them more effective. By removing the manual labor of gathering logs or chasing down related events, they enable humans to jump straight into higher-level decision-making and response planning.

Next steps

Prophet Security’s AI SOC Platform uses intelligent agents to accelerate incident response by autonomously handling alert triage, investigation, and response, without playbooks. By rapidly collecting context, connecting evidence, and reaching conclusions on its own, Prophet AI helps teams cut MTTI and MTTR by up to 90%. Want to see how it works? Book a demo.

Frequently Asked Questions

How are AI agents used in incident response?
AI agents are used in incident response to autonomously investigate alerts, gather context, reason through evidence, and generate summaries.

How does Prophet Security's AI SOC platform accelerate incident response?
Prophet Security accelerates incident response by using AI agents to automatically triage and investigate alerts, reducing time to respond by up to 90%.

Do AI agents eliminate the need for analysts?
AI agents do not eliminate the need for analysts—they take over repetitive tasks so analysts can focus on high-impact work.

What tools do AI agents integrate with?
AI agents integrate with tools like SIEMs, EDRs, identity providers, cloud platforms, and email security systems.

How fast is incident response with AI agents?
Incident response with AI agents begins the moment an alert is triggered, often completing investigations in minutes.

Why are AI agents better than traditional playbooks?
AI agents are better than traditional playbooks because they adapt to new scenarios without relying on static workflows.