Darktrace Report Finds AI in 77% of Security Stacks, but Trust Limits Autonomy

Summary

Darktrace’s 2026 report says generative AI is used in 77% of security stacks, while many security professionals restrict autonomous actions or require human oversight. It also finds strong preference for MSSP-delivered SOC capabilities.

Key points

The report says generative AI plays a role in 77% of security stacks; 67% use supervised machine learning and 67% use agentic AI.
Security professionals report using natural language processing in 58% of stacks and unsupervised machine learning in 35%.
Although 89% say they have good visibility into AI-generated reasoning, 74% limit AI’s autonomous SOC actions until explainability improves.
86% do not allow AI to take even small remediation actions without human oversight.
The article notes that human review can slow response and add to analyst workload, while greater autonomy depends on building trust in AI decision-making.
85% of surveyed security professionals prefer to obtain new SOC capabilities as a managed service.

Article Details

Publisher: Darktrace
Report Period: 2026
Scope: Survey findings on AI adoption, trust, and managed security service preferences among security professionals.
Key Statistics: 77% report that GenAI plays a role in their security stack.
67% report using supervised machine learning and 67% report using agentic AI in their organization’s security stack; 58% report using NLP and 35% unsupervised machine learning.
89% say they have good visibility into the reasoning behind AI-generated outputs; 74% limit AI’s autonomous SOC actions until explainability improves; 86% do not allow AI to take even small remediation actions without human oversight.
85% of security professionals prefer to obtain new SOC capabilities as a managed service.
The article reports an 87% preference for MSSP-delivered security operations in the energy sector.

Vendors

DarktraceFindings in this blog are taken from Darktrace’s annual State of AI Cybersecurity Report 2026.

Products

ActiveAI Security PortalAI-native security, Darktrace is making it easier for MSSPs to deliver its technology. The ActiveAI Security Portal introduces an alert dashboard designed to increase the speed and efficiency of alert triage,

Industries

EducationPreferences for MSSP-delivered security operations are particularly strong in the education, energy (87%), and healthcare sectors. This makes sense: all are high-value targets for threat actors, and all tend to have EnergyPreferences for MSSP-delivered security operations are particularly strong in the education, energy (87%), and healthcare sectors. This makes sense: all are high-value targets for threat actors, and all tend to have Healthcarefor MSSP-delivered security operations are particularly strong in the education, energy (87%), and healthcare sectors. This makes sense: all are high-value targets for threat actors, and all tend to have limited RetailTechnologymore quickly and thoroughly, and automate response. But although AI has been widely adopted, this technology is also frequently misunderstood, and occasionally viewed with suspicion.