What AI Agents Should Own in Your SOC, And What Happens If You Wait with Tim Leehealey

What happens when the adversary moves at machine speed, and your SOC is still responding at human speed? Why does nearly every security team say AI should handle L1 work, while 64% of organizations still have zero agents in production? And how long until the "coworker" resolving your ticket in Slack turns out not to be human at all? Tim Leehealey, VP of Strategy and Operations at Strike 48, joins us this week to talk about what it actually takes to get AI agents out of the demo and into production. Tim agenticized his own company's IT, watched it blow up, and came out the other side with lessons from Fortune 100 SOCs running agents at serious scale.  He shares where AI actually belongs in the alert pipeline, the objections holding teams back, and a blunt warning for any leader still waiting on the sidelines in 2027. If AI in the SOC is on your roadmap before the end of this year, start here.   Impactful Moments 00:00 - Introduction 01:55 - Busting a myth: AI will replace analysts 04:45 - Introducing Tim Leehealey  05:30 - The Strike48 survey: 84% say hand L1 to AI 08:00 - Fear the low-and-slow attacker, not the loud one 13:00 - Getting breached without agents in 2027 15:00 - When Tim's own rollout blew up 19:00 - Micro agents inside deterministic workflows 21:25 - Skills advice for L1 analysts 26:00 - The next 18 months of agentic adoption 28:00 - Jim Bob in your Slack is an agent 21:30 - Ron's take: transparency is the trust unlock Links Connect with Tim Leehealey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-leehealey-b8b04321  Learn more about Strike48: https://strike48.com Check out the 2026 State of Agentic Security report here: https://hubs.ly/Q04p49S20 Go deeper on Strike 48's technology: https://labs.strike48.com –  Check out our upcoming events: https://www.hackervalley.com/livestreams  Love Hacker Valley Studio? Pick up some swag: https://store.hackervalley.com  Become a sponsor of the show: https://hackervalley.com/work-with-us/