5 AI Mandates from Your Board: A Boardroom Mandate for AI-Driven Efficiency
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5 AI Mandates from Your Board: A Boardroom Mandate for AI-Driven Efficiency
By Beth Dannemiller, Director of Product Marketing
AI Has Moved from Buzzword to Board Mandate
In 2025, AI in cybersecurity is no longer optional—it’s a board-level expectation. CISOs aren’t being asked if they’re using AI; they’re being asked to show measurable outcomes: faster response, reduced noise, greater visibility, and ROI the board can trust.
Security operations have become a boardroom priority. As cyber risk escalates into business risk, boards are pressing CISOs to deliver faster MTTR, demonstrable ROI, and higher productivity—often without new budget or headcount.
According to Gartner’s 2025 Cybersecurity Innovations in AI Risk Management survey, boards now expect CISOs to modernize the SOC with AI. By 2027:
- 25% of common SOC tasks will be 50% more cost-efficient through automation and hyperscaling.
- Yet 30% of SOC leaders will fail to operationalize GenAI, derailed by hallucinations, workflow gaps, and poor execution.
The message is clear: AI is no longer a pilot project. It’s a mandate. Modernizing the SOC isn’t about innovation for its own sake—it’s about delivering outcomes that reduce risk and prove business value.
Here are the five mandates your board expects.
1. Reduce MTTR (Mean Time to Respond)
Speed is the currency of cyber defense. Every hour an incident lingers, risk grows.
- Many SOCs still operate with 12+ hour MTTRs—too much room for attackers to move.
- At Alberta Health Services (AHS)—where an EHR outage could cost $600K per hour—reducing MTTR was mission-critical.
- With Securonix Unified Defense SIEM and Agentic AI, AHS cut response times by 30%+, with AI-driven investigation and prioritization giving analysts back precious hours.
2. Eliminate Alert Fatigue
SOC burnout is real. Drowning in false positives weakens defenses and accelerates turnover.
- AHS’s SOC managed log volumes across 106 hospitals and 800 clinics.
- With Agentic AI—powered by Noise Cancelation and behavioral analytics—they reduced false positives by 70%+.
- Analysts reclaimed 2–3 hours per day, shifting from noise triage to proactive threat hunting.
3. Improve Visibility Without Growing Headcount
Budgets are flat. Talent is scarce. The only answer is to amplify the people you already have.
- AHS, with 150,000+ users and the world’s largest Epic EHR instance, faced daunting visibility challenges.
- Agentic AI provided anomaly detection, autonomous sweeps, and natural-language summaries across a unified data layer.
- As their CISO put it: “You can hire 1,000 analysts and still not match what AI can do.”
4. Deliver Measurable ROI from AI Investments
Boards aren’t asking if you’re using AI. They’re asking how it’s helping.
- At AHS, analysts saved hours daily, deferred headcount costs, and prevented catastrophic outages.
- By operationalizing AI—not just experimenting—AHS turned AI into both a security win and a business win.
5. Report Metrics That Matter
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. MTTR alone isn’t enough. Boards expect clarity on:
- Cost reduction
- Risk mitigation
- Productivity gains—in board-ready language.
A compelling board narrative starts with the “why”: rising threats, analyst burnout, unsustainable costs. Then show the “before and after”:
- MTTR cut in half
- False positives down 80%
- Analyst hours reclaimed
- ROI quantified: averted $600K/hour outages, 40% lower cost per alert, double the cases per analyst
Beyond numbers, emphasize strategic outcomes: business continuity, talent retention, compliance confidence, and innovation readiness.
The New Boardroom Reality
Your board doesn’t want AI pilots. They want proof. Faster response. Less fatigue. More visibility. ROI and metrics that matter.
In 2025, these five mandates are reshaping the SOC. The question isn’t whether you’ll use AI. It’s whether you can show it’s working.
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