Security Leaders Rethink SIEM in the Age of AI, According to Sumo Logic’s 2025 Report

At the AWS Summit in Washington, DC, Sumo Logic unveiled its 2025 Security Operations Insights report, offering a revealing snapshot of a cybersecurity industry at an inflection point. As enterprise environments grow more distributed and threat actors become faster and more adaptive, a clear trend has emerged: security operations centers (SOCs) are ditching static legacy tools in favor of agile, AI-enhanced platforms that can deliver speed, scalability, and intelligence.

Drawn from a survey of more than 500 IT and security decision-makers, the report captures a broad shift in mindset—one that places AI and cloud-native architecture at the heart of modern SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) strategies.

“Security teams today are balancing fast-changing threats, growing data volumes, and rising demands for operational efficiency,” said Chas Clawson, Security CTO at Sumo Logic. “Our research confirms that even organizations confident in their current solutions’ adaptability are exploring new options, prioritizing AI-powered, cloud-native solutions that unify detection, automation, and context.”

Confidence, But With Conditions

The findings reveal a paradox. While 90% of respondents still consider SIEM core to their cybersecurity posture, a striking 75% are simultaneously exploring alternatives—particularly platforms that offer real-time threat intelligence, built-in automation, and reduced vendor lock-in.

The reason? Traditional SIEMs, while powerful, are struggling to keep pace with the volume and velocity of today’s threat landscape. Half of the surveyed leaders cited integration headaches with their broader tech stack, and 95% emphasized flexibility as a top priority in evaluating new solutions.

AI Isn’t Just Buzz—It’s a Buying Criterion

AI is no longer viewed as a futuristic enhancement—it’s a dealbreaker. Nine in ten respondents rated AI as a major factor in purchasing decisions, and 70% said their confidence in SIEM solutions hinges on the presence of intelligent tooling.

This isn't just theoretical. A third of organizations reported tangible reductions in incident response time when using AI-powered playbooks, a figure that signals real operational lift. Meanwhile, 84% said they now expect SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) capabilities to be built into the core platform—not bolted on as an afterthought.

From Signals to Context

For many security teams, visibility remains elusive—especially across cloud-first, multi-platform environments. That’s where unified, AI-driven SIEM platforms shine.

“We needed a solution that could scale with our AWS environment and reduce the noise from legacy systems,” said John Sacchetti, Director of Security at Destination XL. “Sumo Logic’s cloud-native platform and AI-driven insights have helped us improve detection accuracy, streamline response, and gain the visibility we were missing in our previous SIEM.”

Sumo Logic’s approach, grounded in what it calls “logs-first intelligence,” emphasizes the use of real-time data streams and automated analytics to drive faster investigations and reduce time-to-resolution—a critical metric as organizations aim to neutralize threats before they escalate.

The Road to Intelligent Security Operations

The report makes one conclusion crystal clear: intelligent security operations are the future. As complexity rises, SOCs are demanding not just better dashboards, but systems that can think, correlate, and act autonomously.

From AI-guided triage to prebuilt integrations that shave hours off configuration time, the future of SIEM is no longer just about centralizing logs. It’s about transforming every data point into a decision—faster, smarter, and with more precision than ever before.

Sumo Logic will be showcasing its Cloud SIEM and AI innovations this week at both the AWS Summit and the Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit. For those not on the ground in DC, the full 2025 Security Operations Insights report is available now, offering deeper data on how organizations are reshaping their security operations for a more intelligent—and resilient—future.