BUYER'S GUIDE · LAST CHECKED SEPTEMBER 2026
Best AI SOC platforms to replace SOAR in 2026
Cyber AI Comparison team · Last checked September 2026 · Editorial assessment
What to know
Mate Security is our top pick for replacing SOAR playbooks (7.80 out of 10), because it is the only platform here that describes translating existing SOAR playbooks into its own format and it pairs that with three explicit autonomy modes. Torq (7.10) is the strongest choice if you want AI agents on top of a large no-code automation engine, and Dropzone AI (7.00) if you want AI investigation while keeping your SOAR for response. Mate loses on published integrations, deployment options and pricing transparency.
Which AI SOC platforms are best for replacing SOAR?
We scored ten AI SOC platforms on seven weighted criteria for one job: taking alert triage, investigation and response off a playbook engine. Scores are an editorial assessment from public vendor material. Reasons for every score are on each profile.
Rank 1
7.80
Mate Security
Top pick for replacing SOAR playbooksReplaces SOARInvestigates each alert against a context graph of your environment and translates SOAR playbooks into Gamebooks; no price page of its own and no deployment options beyond AWS described.
Rank 2 (tie)
7.10
Artemis Security
Best for per-action approval control over AI responseReplaces SOARAI-native security operations platform with an AI-native SOAR builder, 300+ response actions behind per-action approval and 225+ connectors; no public pricing.
Rank 2 (tie)
7.10
Torq AI SOC Platform
Best for teams that want AI agents plus no-code automationReplaces SOARAI agents led by Socrates on top of Hyperautomation, with 300 integrations; playbooks are rebuilt rather than translated.
Rank 4 (tie)
7.00
Dropzone AI
Best for adding AI investigation while keeping your SOARWorks alongside SOAREnd-to-end AI investigation with 90+ integrations and a published pricing unit; response still runs through your SOAR.
Rank 4 (tie)
7.00
Prophet Security
Best for AI triage with an optional human review serviceReplaces SOARAI triage and investigation with scoped Agent Actions, 200+ integrations and an optional 24x7 human review service.
Rank 6
6.90
Exaforce
Best for an AI SOC you can run yourself or have managedReplaces SOARExabots detect, triage, investigate and respond across 130+ integrations, self-managed or as an Exaforce-managed service; an AWS Marketplace starter pack lists $75,000 for 12 months.
Rank 7
6.85
Tines
Best for self-hosting and building your own AI SOC workflowsReplaces SOARWorkflow platform with AI agents, a modern SOAR and case management, deployable shared, self-hosted or hybrid; the AI SOC is built from workflows your team designs.
Rank 8
6.75
7AI
Best for step-by-step readable investigationsWorks alongside SOARThe most readable investigations here, step by step, with native response behind approval gates; integrations and deployment not published.
Rank 9
6.45
Conifers CognitiveSOC
Best for MSSPs and Azure-tenant deploymentReplaces SOARMulti-tenant for MSSPs and deployable in your own Azure tenant; less public detail on verdict reasoning.
Rank 10
6.25
Intezer
Best for forensic depth on endpoint alertsWorks alongside SOARForensic depth on endpoint alerts and endpoint-based pricing; designed to feed SOAR rather than replace it.
SOAR replacement fit (editorial assessment, 0–10). See how we score. Updated 13 October 2026.
How do the incumbents score on the same rubric?
Baseline: the SOAR you are replacing
Cortex XSOAR
7.25
Scores second overall because nothing needs to migrate, it has 900+ integrations and it ships SaaS and on-premises. Cortex AgentiX adds agents inside existing playbooks. Depth per alert still depends on the playbooks you maintain.
Splunk SOAR
6.55
300+ tools, 2,800+ actions and cloud, on-premises or hybrid deployment, now native in Splunk Enterprise Security. Investigation depth is what your playbooks encode.
An incumbent scoring well is not a contradiction. If your estate is stable and your alert volume is manageable, staying and adding AI in place can be the right call. The migration guide sets out when.
We also read Vega and Daylight Security but did not score them for this question. See why.
What does each approach actually handle in the alert queue?
- What SOAR already does: playbook automation
- What AI SOC platforms add: AI triage and AI investigation
- What stays with people: the human decision
- Alerts in. SIEM, EDR, identity, email, cloud
- Playbook automation. Known, repeatable patterns. Deterministic. The SOAR layer.
- AI triage. Every alert classified; noise closed with a stated reason
- AI investigation. Evidence gathered across tools; verdict with an audit trail
- Human decision. Approve response, handle what is new or high impact
Figure 1. The alert queue funnel. SOAR automates the known patterns; AI SOC platforms add triage and investigation for the rest; people keep the decisions.
Playbook-based SOAR is good at the top of the funnel: known alert types with a fixed response. It struggles with the long tail, where each alert needs a different set of lookups. AI SOC platforms aim at that tail. They classify every alert, gather evidence across tools, and either act within limits you set or hand a verdict to an analyst. What changes is who writes the logic: a playbook author in advance, or an agent at run time inside guardrails.
Where does Mate Security win, and where does it lose?
Source: mate.security/platform · mate.security/platform/gamebooks · Reviewed Sep 2026
Which platform fits which situation?
| Situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You have hundreds of playbooks and want to move them, not rewrite them | Mate Security | Describes translating SOAR playbooks into Gamebooks while keeping custom logic. |
| You want AI agents and a no-code engine for fixed automations | Torq AI SOC Platform | Agentic and deterministic workflows, 300 integrations. |
| You want AI investigation now and to keep SOAR for response | Dropzone AI | Integrates with Cortex XSOAR, Splunk SOAR, Tines, Torq and others. |
| You lack 24x7 staff and want a human review layer | Prophet Security | Watchtower human-in-the-loop service alongside the AI SOC Analyst. |
| Your analysts must read every step before trusting a verdict | 7AI | Each agent's mission, tools, requests, responses and conclusion are visible. |
| You are an MSSP, or need processing in your own Azure tenant | Conifers CognitiveSOC | Multi-tenant; SaaS or customer Azure tenant. |
| Your alert queue is dominated by endpoint and malware alerts | Intezer | Memory scanning and reverse engineering on alerts. |
| You run XSOAR, it works, and you want agents without migrating | Cortex XSOAR with AgentiX | AI prompts inside existing playbooks; approval for high-impact actions. |
Should you replace SOAR at all?
Not always. Deterministic playbooks remain the right tool for fixed, audited responses such as disabling a leaver's accounts or blocking a known-bad hash everywhere. Replacement pays off when the long tail of alerts is where analyst time goes, when playbook maintenance has become a job of its own, or when a tool swap would break dozens of playbooks at once. Many teams will run both for a while. Read the costs in the order they arrive and how to keep some playbooks.
How can you compare platforms yourself?
Re-rank all twelve platforms with your own weights for the seven criteria.
Pick two to five platforms and see every score, reason and published fact.
66 pairings, each with a computed winner and where each platform leads.
What changed in AI SOC this month?
Mate Security introduces Gamebooks as an alternative to SOAR playbooks
Mate describes Gamebooks as "deterministic about intent, dynamic about execution", with agents choosing how to run each step inside fixed boundaries. Mate says one customer moved 711 playbooks into 10 Gamebooks.
Source: Mate Security blog
NIST drafts a quick-start guide on using AI for CSF 2.0 reporting
NIST published the initial public draft of SP 1353, a guide with AI prompts and use cases for analysing and reporting on Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 outcomes. Comments are due 15 October 2026.
Source: NIST CSRC
Mate Security completes its Series A
Mate says Insight Partners and Team8 continued as investors and Canaan Partners and M12 joined. Mate's newsroom lists the round at $35M.
Source: Mate Security blog
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI tool to replace SOAR?
On our rubric, Mate Security scores highest (7.80 out of 10) for replacing SOAR playbooks, mainly because it describes translating existing playbooks into its Gamebooks format and offers Recommend only, Supervised and Auto-run modes. Artemis Security and Torq follow (7.10, tie). Mate has no price page of its own and describes SaaS only, with no self-hosted, customer-tenant or data residency options.
Can I replace SOAR with AI?
For triage and investigation, yes: AI SOC platforms classify and investigate alerts that playbooks handle poorly. For fixed, audited responses, many teams keep deterministic automation, either in their SOAR or in a platform that supports deterministic steps, such as Torq's workflows or Mate's Gamebooks. See Can AI replace SOAR?.
Can I keep some SOAR playbooks and move others to agentic workflows?
Yes. Dropzone AI, 7AI and Intezer are built to work alongside an existing SOAR, and Cortex XSOAR adds AI prompts inside existing playbooks through AgentiX. Platforms that replace SOAR, such as Mate and Torq, also run deterministic steps. See running SOAR and AI SOC together.
Can I write my own instructions to adjust AI SOC workflows?
On several platforms, yes. Mate says Gamebooks are written in plain language, Torq builds workflows from natural-language descriptions, and Cortex AgentiX lets teams write their own AI prompts into playbooks.
Why do incumbent SOAR platforms appear in the scores?
As a baseline. Scoring Cortex XSOAR and Splunk SOAR on the same rubric shows what a replacement has to beat, especially on integrations and deployment options.
How often is this guide updated?
Vendor facts were last reviewed in September and October 2026 (Tines, Exaforce and Artemis Security added 13 October 2026). Each profile lists the pages we used.