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IT-Harvest’s Richard Stiennon on Why SOC Automation Is Just the Beginning
The cybersecurity vendor landscape is being rebuilt around artificial intelligence, and the transformation is moving faster than most organizations are prepared for.
See Also: How Cyber Deterioration Raises Enterprise Risk
Security operations center automation has emerged as the most obvious entry point – 68 solutions now compete in the space – because Tier 1 analyst activities are precisely the structured, repeatable tasks AI handles well, said Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest. Model protection, guardrails and AI governance have each spawned distinct vendor categories, with guardrails now converging toward broader data loss prevention as organizations seek to govern AI use across every channel, he said.
“AI is here and it is good. Even if you feel it’s not good enough, it’s going to be twice as powerful two and a half months from now,” Stiennon said.
In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSAC Conference 2026, Stiennon also discussed:
- How model protection evolved from a niche offering into a broad enterprise requirement;
- What CISOs should consider when evaluating AI security vendors;
- Why by RSAC Conference 2027, AI will no longer be a distinct vendor category.
Stiennon founded the research firm IT‑Harvest in 2005 to map over 3,120 vendors in the IT security industry. He has authored “Surviving Cyberwar” and “There Will Be Cyberwar.” He is a lecturer at Charles Sturt University, and has held leadership roles at Blancco Technology Group, Fortinet, Webroot Software and Gartner.
