SOC Analysts Welcome AI Gains but Fear Entry-Level Job Losses

What happened

A new survey of security operations centre (SOC) staff, reported by CIO Dive and based on research commissioned by security automation vendor Swimlane, finds that analysts are broadly positive about artificial intelligence's impact on their day-to-day work — even as many expect it to eliminate entry-level roles within the SOC.

Respondents reported that AI tools are already easing the burden of repetitive, high-volume tasks such as triaging alerts and correlating threat data, freeing analysts to focus on higher-value investigative and decision-making work. At the same time, the same efficiency gains are seen as a direct threat to the junior, tier-one analyst positions that have traditionally served as the entry point into cybersecurity careers.

The research points to a dual reality inside security teams: AI is reshaping what the job of a SOC analyst looks like, shifting emphasis toward strategic skills such as threat hunting, judgement calls on ambiguous incidents, and oversight of automated systems, rather than manual alert processing.

Why it matters

For organisations investing in AI-driven security operations, the finding is a reminder that automation's benefits and its disruption land on the same workforce simultaneously. Leaders rolling out AI copilots or automation across detection and response need a deliberate plan for the human side of the transition — not just the technology deployment — if they want to retain institutional knowledge and keep morale intact.

The erosion of entry-level SOC roles also raises a longer-term talent pipeline question for the cybersecurity industry. If AI absorbs the tasks that once trained junior analysts into senior roles, organisations and the sector as a whole will need new pathways — reskilling programmes, rotational schemes, or redesigned junior roles — to keep developing the experienced talent that strategic, judgement-heavy security work still requires.

The Renascence take

This is a textbook case of automation hollowing out the bottom rung of a career ladder while enriching the work at the top — a pattern experience and workforce leaders are seeing well beyond cybersecurity.

The real risk here isn't job loss at the entry level — it's the silent collapse of the apprenticeship model that produces senior talent. Every profession that leans on junior staff to absorb grunt work while learning the craft faces this same trap once AI takes the grunt work away. Security leaders who are pleased with AI's efficiency gains today should be asking a harder question: in five years, where will their senior analysts come from if the on-ramp has been automated out of existence? The operators who get ahead of this will redesign junior roles around supervising, questioning and training AI systems — turning the entry level into a different kind of apprenticeship, rather than eliminating it outright.