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02/08/2026 11:27 am
TL;DR: SOC teams evaluating SOAR in 2026 are facing a split market: agentic AI SOC platforms aim to replace playbooks with autonomous investigations, while workflow builders keep legacy orchestration alive, according to Prophet. The governance question is no longer whether automation helps, but whether static workflows can keep pace with alert volume, changing tactics, and identity-rich investigations.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Prophet: Top 6 SOAR Platforms of 2026
Questions worth separating out
Q: What breaks when a SOAR platform depends on scripted playbooks?
A: The first thing that breaks is maintainability.
Q: Why do identity logs matter so much in SOC operations?
A: Identity logs show who authenticated, which account was used, and whether access came from a user, service account, or workload.
Q: How do security teams know if SOAR automation is actually helping?
A: Look for reduced time spent on manual enrichment, fewer repetitive handoffs between tools, and faster containment for common incidents.
Practitioner guidance
- Audit playbook drift and workflow decay Review your highest-volume SOAR playbooks for stale branching logic, broken connectors, and steps that no longer match current incident patterns.
- Validate identity telemetry before adopting agentic investigations Confirm that identity logs cover privileged users, service accounts, delegated access, and authentication events across core systems.
- Separate deterministic response from reasoning tasks Keep containment actions, approvals, and high-risk changes under explicit controls while allowing AI-led systems to gather evidence and assemble timelines.
What's in the full article
Prophet's full article covers the platform-by-platform operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Side-by-side product positioning for Prophet, Tines, Torq, Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, and Swimlane
- The specific architectural trade-offs behind agentic AI SOC platforms versus low-code workflow engines
- Platform-level details on connectors, replayability, and investigation depth that implementation teams would need
- The article's full ranking logic and vendor-specific use cases for different SOC operating models
👉 Read Prophet's full analysis of top SOAR platforms in 2026 →
SOAR platforms in 2026: are playbooks still the right model?
Explore further
02/08/2026 12:43 pm
SOAR is no longer a single category, because investigation and orchestration solve different problems. Workflow builders still matter where teams need custom, repeatable automation, but they do not remove the burden of deciding what to investigate. Agentic AI changes the centre of gravity by automating reasoning, not just execution. For practitioners, the governance question is which parts of the SOC must remain deterministic and which can safely be delegated to autonomous investigation.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Should organisations replace playbooks with agentic AI investigations?
A: Not everywhere. Use agentic AI where the problem is evidence gathering and correlation, but keep hard controls around containment, approvals, and high-risk actions. The right model is usually hybrid: autonomous reasoning for triage and investigation, deterministic governance for changes that can materially affect production or access.
👉 Read our full editorial: SOAR in 2026: why agentic AI is reshaping SOC automation
