Autonomous Cyber Defense: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Security Operations Infrastructure

The increasing speed and sophistication of cyberattacks have necessitated a transition toward autonomous and semi-autonomous security solutions that operate at machine scales. This article investigates the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a core infrastructural component of autonomous cyber defense systems within modern Security Operations Centers (SOC). We propose a layered architecture where specialized AI agents execute real-time threat detection, event correlation, and response orchestration, while human analysts provide high-level strategic oversight and governance. By leveraging reinforcement learning (RL) and the harmonization of modern datasets (UNSW-NB15 and CICIDS2017), the system effectively mitigates alert fatigue and enhances decision-making under conditions of high uncertainty. Experimental results demonstrate that the RL agent successfully converges on optimal response strategies, effectively balancing the requirements of rigorous security enforcement with the necessity of maintaining operational network availability.