We are honored to be among the technology leaders invited by CyberSecTV.eu to discuss the trends shaping the future of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity at the European level.
In this interview, Vlad Gladin, CTO at Nextgen Software, explores how AI is evolving beyond automation and becoming a powerful investigation layer, helping specialists analyze complex information, connect evidence, identify hidden relationships and make faster, better-informed decisions.
The discussion focuses particularly on AI-driven investigations and on the balance between advanced technology and human expertise. AI can dramatically increase analytical capacity, but its real value emerges when results remain transparent, traceable and under human control. Key insights from the interview The interview with Vlad Gladin, CTO at Nextgen Software, highlights several key directions shaping the future of AI investigations in cybersecurity:
📌 AI is transforming the SOC from a heavily manual operation into an automated, investigation-driven environment. 📌 Its role is not to replace analysts, but to reduce cognitive load, handle junior-to-mid-level investigations and allow humans to focus on critical decisions. 📌 To work effectively, AI needs complete visibility across logs, applications, networks and other relevant data sources. 📌 In a cybersecurity landscape increasingly driven by automated attacks, defenders must use the same level of automation. 📌 The next generation of SOCs will rely on specialized AI agents, such as SOC Analysts, Risk Advisors and custom agents trained on private organizational data. 📌 These agents can investigate alerts, identify false positives, correlate missing information and present only the most relevant cases to human analysts. 📌 Nextgen’s approach emphasizes local AI inference and data sovereignty. Sensitive security data should remain private and should not be sent to public AI platforms. 📌 The target is up to 95% SOC automation, while the most critical 5% of decisions remain under human control. Destructive actions, such as blocking users or IP addresses, must always require human approval.
AI is becoming a mandatory potentiator for modern cybersecurity. Its purpose is not to replace human analysts, but to reduce cognitive load, automate junior-to-mid-level investigations and allow experts to focus on critical judgment and high-impact decisions.
The evolution is clear:
Traditional SOC 📌 100% manual labor 📌 High alert fatigue 📌 Slow mitigation
Next-Generation SOC 📌 Up to 95% automated 📌 AI-led investigations 📌 Faster response 📌 Humans focused on the most critical 5% of decisions.
For AI to investigate effectively, it needs complete visibility across SIEM data, application logs, network activity and other relevant contextual information. In a cyberwar increasingly driven by automated attacks, defenders must adopt the same level of automation.
A key development is the use of specialized AI personas or agents adapted to specific roles:
📌 SOC Analyst L1–L3: investigates alerts, correlates events and performs preliminary assessments. 📌 Risk Advisor: interprets security issues from a business, management and risk perspective. 📌 Custom AI Agents: trained for specific organizational environments, workflows and private data.
These agents can perform tool calls, investigate alerts, identify false positives, connect missing information and deliver security assessments. Human analysts receive the cases that require deeper analysis or potentially destructive actions.
You can find out here more on Cyber Minds personas developed by Nextgen Software.
Nextgen’s approach also emphasizes two critical principles: Data sovereignty: sensitive security data should remain private through local AI inference, rather than being sent to public AI providers. Human-in-the-loop: AI can execute investigations, but actions such as blocking users, accounts or critical IP addresses must remain under human control.
Main conclusions 📌 AI is becoming essential in cybersecurity. The strongest model combines automated investigations, specialized AI agents, complete data visibility, local inference and human control over critical actions. 📌 European organizations need AI technologies that provide transparency, data sovereignty and deployment flexibility. 📌 Nextgen’s work in AI-powered cybersecurity and intelligence platforms reflects a practical commitment to transforming research and innovation into operational capabilities.
For Nextgen Software, this is not only a vision of the future. Our activity in AI-powered cybersecurity, intelligence platforms and advanced data analysis already demonstrates how these technologies can be transformed into practical, operational capabilities.
We are proud to contribute to the European conversation about responsible AI, cybersecurity innovation, data sovereignty and the next generation of investigation technologies.