Fighting Machines with Machines: How AI Is Redefining the SOC

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Cybersecurity has always been a race against time—but in the era of artificial intelligence, it’s become a race against the machine.

In this episode of the TechSpective Podcast, I sit down with Ankur Singla, founder and CEO of Exaforce, to explore what it really means to build an AI-powered SOC. We talk about the shift from manual detection and response to automation at machine speed, and what happens when AI agents begin to take on specialized roles in security operations—an idea that sounds futuristic, but is already unfolding across the industry.

Singla brings deep experience from years at companies like F5, Juniper, and Cisco, and he’s seen firsthand how much inefficiency still lingers inside security operations. His view is that AI isn’t just an enhancement—it’s a necessity. Attackers are already using automation to scale their efforts, and defending against them requires the same level of speed and precision.

But as we discuss, the rise of AI in cybersecurity isn’t just about capability—it’s about control. What happens when your defensive AI gets hijacked? How do we maintain human oversight in an environment increasingly dominated by machine logic? And at what point does the pursuit of efficiency start to blur the line between autonomy and accountability?

Our conversation stretches from the practical realities of AI-driven threat detection to the philosophical questions of trust, identity, and human relevance in the next generation of cybersecurity. It’s a candid look at both the promise and peril of a world where digital defenders never sleep—and where the same tools that protect us can also be turned against us.

If you’re curious about how security operations will evolve over the next year—and what it really takes to fight machines with machines—this is one you won’t want to miss.