The current SOC model relies on a scarce resource: human analysts. These professionals are expensive, in high demand, and increasingly difficult to retain. Their work is not only very technical and high-risk, but also soul-crushingly repetitive, dealing with a constant stream of alerts and incidents. As a result, SOC analysts often leave in search of better pay, opportunities to move outside of the SOC into more rewarding roles, or simply to take much-needed breaks. This high attrition rate puts the SOC in a vulnerable position, jeopardizing the overall effectiveness of cybersecurity operations.
In order to keep your team resilient and performing, it’s critical to take proactive steps to reduce burnout and improve retention. Here are five strategies that can make a difference.
Why analyst burnout matters more than ever
SOC analyst burnout is becoming a critical issue as the cybersecurity landscape evolves. Security Operations Centers (SOCs) are faced with an increasing number of daily alerts that need to be investigated, with 97% of organizations reporting an increase in the number of alerts generated year-on-year. Osterman Research Report “Improving SOC Efficiency” (October 2024). This surge is staggering for analysts who are responsible for sorting through and investigating the flow of data on a daily basis.
This problem is compounded by the escalation of unaddressed alerts and incidents. The same report shows that 89.6% of organizations are experiencing a continuous increase in their security backlog. As the number of alerts grows, so does the pressure on SOC teams to manage them. However, when only 19% of alerts are typically addressed, the workload becomes a vicious circle, resulting in unrelenting pressure on analysts.
This unmanageable workload directly contributes to work-related stress and burnout. Alarmingly, 80.8% of respondents expect this stress to worsen over the next two years if current SOC approaches are not improved. SOCs can’t afford to lose more analysts, but the cybersecurity talent pool is shrinking. According to the ISC² Workforce Study 2023, there are currently 4 million open cybersecurity jobs in the US, up 8% year-over-year. Given that 67% of organizations already report staffing shortages, every analyst departure compounds the problem, leading to further strain on those who remain.
Given these challenges, it is critical to lighten the workload on SOC analysts. Automating mundane tasks, enabling employee growth, and maintaining a healthier work-life balance are all important to preventing burnout. Organizations must invest in their SOC teams now to ensure they can keep pace with emerging threats while maintaining a healthy and resilient workforce.
6 Simple Steps to Eliminate SOC Analyst Burnout:
For a SOC to run smoothly, it’s critical that managers take proactive steps to reduce burnout and improve retention. Fortunately, it’s now easier than ever to implement meaningful changes that positively impact the daily lives of SOC analysts. Here are 6 key steps to reduce analyst burnout:
1. Automate the triage and investigation of alerts
The harsh reality is that there simply aren’t enough analysts to handle the sheer volume of alerts that overwhelm today’s SOCs. This means that important work is often filtered out or, worse, left unfinished altogether, increasing the risk of missing critical threats. Every alert needs to be addressed to mitigate risk, but SOC automation efforts have not been able to fully replicate the fine-grained decision-making of human analysts when it comes to triaging and investigating alerts. That left people in the driver’s seat for the investigation.
With recent advances in Artificial intelligence agentwe are witnessing a breakthrough in SOC automation. Artificial intelligence is now capable of automating up to 90% of the first-level tasks that once bogged down human analysts. This not only ensures that important alerts are resolved faster, but also frees up analysts to focus on more complex, useful work. By offloading tedious, repetitive tasks to artificial intelligence, organizations can reduce the risk of missed attacks while offering human analysts more fulfilling roles that reduce burnout and increase retention.
2. Change the nature of the analyst’s work
A fundamental shift in the SOC model is needed to move analysts from “doing the work” to “reviewing the results of AI”. This transition has several significant advantages. First, it eliminates tedious, repetitive tasks that often lead to burnout, allowing analysts to focus on more strategic decision-making, skill development, and more valuable work. Second, it increases productivity exponentially because what used to take 40 minutes for analytics can now be done in seconds with AI.
The key to the success of this model is the use of Agentic AI that works like a real one AI SOC Analyst. These tools provide decision-ready results, including a triage verdict, incident scoping, root cause analysis, and a detailed action plan. With this comprehensive information at hand, SOC analysts can quickly understand the situation, understand how the AI arrived at its conclusions, and confidently validate the results. From there, they can select appropriate response actions, dramatically reducing manual effort while ensuring rapid and accurate incident resolution. This shift not only improves SOC efficiency, but also increases job satisfaction, allowing analysts to do more meaningful and effective work.
3. Implement response automation
Once an incident is confirmed, the next step – containment and response – is often the most stressful part of the process. It is time-sensitive and error-prone due to the need to coordinate actions between multiple tools. however, when sorting and investigating is done by AIcorrective actions become much easier.
AI SOC analysts can create detailed response plans that analysts can execute manually, initiate with a single mouse click, or run automatically without human intervention. This reduces the chance of errors, speeds up response times and takes pressure off analysts at critical moments. By automating these workflows, SOCs can respond to threats more quickly and efficiently, minimizing stress and burnout for their teams.
4. Provide continuous learning
SOC analysts often bring diverse skill sets shaped by their education and previous roles, but many are looking to advance their careers by improving their cybersecurity knowledge. Agentic AI offers a unique opportunity for on-the-job training as it not only automates investigations but also explains its findings and provides detailed response plans. This is invaluable because AI not only does the work, but also trains analysts by creating guidelines for incident containment and resolution.
By working alongside AI, analysts are learning best practices for triage, investigation and response, as well as gaining access to new tools and techniques they may not have encountered before. It’s like a teacher built into the system, showing them how a more experienced analyst would approach a particular question. This continuous learning not only helps analysts develop their skills, but also prepares them for higher roles in the future, creating a more capable and satisfied workforce.
5. Improve tool integration
Streamlining workflows is key to reducing the complexity SOC analysts face on a daily basis. One powerful approach is to use interactive elements such as chatbot or copilot interfaces that allow analysts to perform threat hunting and data exploration across multiple security tools from a single interface. Instead of jumping between platforms and manually gathering information, analysts can ask questions, dig deeper into incidents, and gather information quickly, all in one place.
This integration not only makes threat intelligence more efficient, but also helps analysts identify trends, identify patterns, and gain valuable context without the hassle of navigating multiple tools. With a seamless, unified interface, analysts can focus on understanding and responding to threats faster, increasing their productivity and reducing frustration associated with tool sprawl.
6. Ensure work-life balance
With AI SOC analysts doing operational work, human analysts have far less need to work nights, weekends or holidays to maintain 24/7 coverage. AI can monitor alerts, conduct investigations, and even escalate true positives through communication platforms like Slack, Teams, or email. It can request approval to take action or initiate remediation workflows, allowing analysts to manage critical incidents without being involved in long, tedious investigations during their downtime.
This allows analysts to maintain a healthier work-life balance, knowing they can quickly respond to critical situations from their mobile devices without sacrificing their personal time. By reducing the need for constant on-call availability, AI helps create a more sustainable work environment, minimizing burnout while ensuring the SOC remains fully operational 24/7.
In today’s severe cybersecurity environment, SOC analyst burnout is a critical issue that must be addressed for the long-term success of security operations. By implementing AI-powered automation, improving workflows and maintaining a healthy work-life balance, SOCs can create a more efficient and sustainable environment, empowering analysts to thrive while reducing the risk of burnout.
Download this manual to learn more about how to make SOC more effective, or take an interactive product tour to learn more about AI SOC Analysts.
