Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) was introduced with the promise of revolutionizing Security Operations Centers (SOCs) through automation, reducing manual workloads and enhancing efficiency. However, despite three generations of technology and 10 years of advancements, SOAR hasn't fully delivered on its potential, leaving SOCs still grappling with many of the same challenges. Enter Agentic AI—a new approach that could finally fulfill the SOC's long-awaited vision, providing a more dynamic and adaptive solution to automate SOC operations effectively. Three Generations of SOAR – Still Falling Short SOAR emerged in the mid-2010s with companies like PhantomCyber, Demisto, and Swimlane, promising to automate SOC tasks, improve productivity, and shorten response times. Despite these ambitions, SOAR found its greatest success in automating generalized tasks like threat intel propagation, rather than core threat detection, investigation, and response (TDIR) workloads. The evolution of SOAR can be broken down into three generations: Gen 1 (Mid-2010s): Early SOAR platforms featured static playbooks, complex implementations (often involving coding), and high maintenance demands. Few organizations adopted them beyond simple use cases, like phishing triage. Gen 2 (2018–2020): This phase introduced no-code, drag-and-drop editors and extensive playbook libraries, reducing the need for engineering resources and improving adoption. Gen 3 (2022–present): The latest…Read More