The Autonomous SOC, Revisited: What 18 Months on the Road Has Taught Us

This SentinelOne whitepaper reviews their Autonomous SOC maturity model and 18 months of deployment experience, arguing that progress from AI-Assisted Operations to Partial and High Autonomy depends less on tooling and more on governance, data foundations, accountability, and operational practice. It highlights common barriers (lack of playbooks, audit trails, and clear rules of engagement), compares SOC autonomy to automotive SAE levels, and advises that organizations treat governance as a prerequisite to safely enable automated response; the technology is largely ready, but institutional work is the limiting factor.