Before You Deploy AI in Your SOC, Check Whether Your Team Is Ready

Prophet Security's State of AI in Security Operations 2026 survey, covering more than 250 CISOs, SOC leaders and practitioners, found that 40% of security teams use AI every day and another 56% are testing it. Only 4% have no plans to adopt it. For teams still testing, the next question is whether their own security operations centre (SOC) is ready for AI agents.

The article describes readiness in two parts. First, does your SOC have the problems AI agents are built for, such as alerts that go unworked? Respondents said 28% of their alerts are never investigated. Second, does it have what agents need to investigate accurately: access to data and context, a written investigation standard with baseline metrics, rules on what the agent may do, and a plan for the analyst time it returns. A SOC does not need to be far along a maturity model to qualify, because agents start with alert handling, the bottom layer.

Prophet's model, the SOC Hierarchy of Needs, has five levels: alert management, detection coverage, threat awareness, proactive hunting and posture improvements. Each depends on the one below it. A team buried in alerts rarely reaches hunting, and hunting without threat awareness lacks direction. According to the source, AI agents can start on each alert as it arrives, record the evidence behind their conclusions so staff can check it, and free analyst hours for detection and hunting work. This is only the opening of the article, and the full piece covers more.