AI Assisted Threat Detection & Response
We deploy Microsoft Security Copilot into your Sentinel and Defender environment to speed up investigation and incident response, scoped honestly as a tool that helps analysts work faster, not a replacement for them.
Analysts spend more time gathering context than making decisions.
A large share of an analyst's working day, in-house or in a SOC, goes into mechanical investigation work: pulling logs from multiple sources, writing correlation queries, reading through scripts or files to work out what a piece of malware actually does, and writing up an incident timeline that a manager or client can understand. This is necessary work, but it's slow, and it's the same kind of work repeated across most investigations.
The consequence is a backlog. Genuine incidents queue behind routine alerts because there isn't enough analyst time to triage everything with equal thoroughness. A 24/7 SOC covering multiple clients feels this acutely — the volume of investigation work scales with the number of alerts, but analyst headcount doesn't scale at the same rate without significant cost.
There's also a skills gap problem across the industry. Experienced analysts who can read an obfuscated script and immediately understand its intent are scarce and expensive. Less experienced analysts can do the job, but they take longer and need more supervision, which puts more pressure on the experienced staff they're meant to be freeing up.
Vendors have not helped by marketing AI security tools as if they solve this outright — as autonomous defenders that need no human oversight. That framing sets unrealistic expectations, and when the tool inevitably produces an incomplete or slightly wrong summary, trust in the whole approach collapses rather than the tool being used for what it's genuinely good at.
- Investigation time dominated by mechanical log gathering and query writing
- Genuine incidents queuing behind routine alerts due to limited analyst capacity
- Reliance on scarce, experienced analysts to interpret ambiguous signal quickly
- Overblown vendor claims setting unrealistic expectations for AI tools
We deploy Copilot to speed up the work, with an analyst checking every output.
We start by confirming your Sentinel and Defender deployment is generating good telemetry, because Copilot is only as useful as the data it has to work with. Bolting it onto a poorly tuned or sparsely monitored estate produces disappointing results regardless of how good the underlying AI model is.
Deployment focuses on the tasks where generative AI genuinely helps: summarising a multi-stage incident into a readable timeline, drafting KQL queries analysts can review and run rather than writing from scratch, and explaining what a suspicious script or file is likely doing in plain language as a starting point for investigation.
Every output Copilot produces is treated as a draft for an analyst to verify against the underlying data, not an instruction to act on directly. We build this verification step into your incident response process explicitly, so speed doesn't come at the cost of accuracy, particularly for anything that leads to containment or user impact.
We also scope usage against Microsoft's consumption-based pricing before deployment, modelling realistic monthly compute unit use based on your alert volume and team size, so the cost of running Copilot is predictable rather than discovered after the fact.
- Good Sentinel and Defender telemetry confirmed before deploying Copilot
- Focused on incident summarisation, query drafting and script explanation
- Analyst verification built into the process for every actioned output
- Consumption cost modelled and scoped before deployment, not after
Everything in the engagement, set out up front.
A deployment engagement covering readiness, configuration, workflow integration and cost scoping.
Telemetry readiness check
Confirmation that your Sentinel and Defender deployment produces the quality of data Copilot needs to be useful.
Copilot deployment and access controls
Configuration within your existing tenant permissions, ensuring Copilot's access matches each analyst's existing role.
Investigation workflow integration
Copilot embedded into incident triage and investigation steps, with a defined analyst verification checkpoint.
Query and playbook drafting support
Copilot-assisted KQL query and response playbook drafts, reviewed and refined by our team before handover.
Analyst training
Practical training on where Copilot genuinely saves time, and where its output needs particular scrutiny.
Consumption cost modelling
A realistic monthly compute unit estimate based on your alert volume, reviewed and adjusted after initial usage data.
What you receive.
- Telemetry readiness assessment report
- Copilot access configuration aligned to existing roles
- Investigation workflow with analyst verification checkpoints
- Sample query and playbook library
- Analyst training session and reference guide
- Consumption cost model and monthly usage tracking
- Incident summary quality review after 30 days
- Recommendations for further Sentinel or Defender tuning
Built for organisations that need the work done properly.
SOC teams with high alert volume
Internal or outsourced SOC functions where investigation backlog is limited by analyst time rather than tooling.
Organisations with junior or stretched analysts
Teams where less experienced analysts need support interpreting ambiguous signal without waiting on senior colleagues.
Existing Sentinel and Defender customers
Organisations with mature telemetry looking to speed up investigation rather than expand monitoring coverage.
Firms wary of AI overclaims
Organisations that want a realistic, human-in-the-loop deployment rather than a vendor pitch promising autonomous defence.
What changes once the work is done.
What changes once Copilot is deployed with proper analyst oversight.
Faster investigation, not automated decisions
Analysts spend less time on mechanical query writing and log gathering, more time on judgement calls that need a person.
Consistent incident documentation
AI-drafted summaries, checked by analysts, produce more consistent and readable incident write-ups for clients and management.
Reduced pressure on scarce senior analysts
Junior analysts get a useful first-draft explanation of suspicious behaviour, reducing constant escalation to senior staff.
Predictable AI spend
Consumption cost modelled and tracked, avoiding a surprise bill from unscoped usage.
Better use of existing Microsoft licensing
Copilot draws value from Sentinel and Defender telemetry you're already generating, rather than requiring new data collection.
Realistic expectations across the business
Leadership and clients understand Copilot as an efficiency tool with human oversight, not an autonomous SOC replacement.
Why we're honest about what AI can and can't do here.
We're not going to tell you Security Copilot replaces analysts, because it doesn't, and organisations that deploy it on that assumption end up disappointed and, worse, less secure than before, because they've reduced human oversight on the basis of a tool that still needs verification. Our deployments keep a person accountable for every action taken.
What Copilot does well is remove a meaningful amount of the repetitive, time-consuming work that slows investigation down. That's a genuine efficiency gain, and for organisations running lean security teams — which describes most of the SMEs and mid-market businesses we work with — that efficiency gain matters, provided it's implemented with the right checks in place.
We deploy this technology for clients across Chesterfield, Sheffield, Derby, Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London, always as part of a wider managed security services UK engagement rather than as a standalone gadget, because Copilot's value depends entirely on the quality of the Sentinel and Defender deployment underneath it.
If you're evaluating whether AI-assisted security tooling is right for your organisation, we'd rather have that honest conversation upfront, including where it won't help, than sell you a licence that sits underused because the underlying telemetry or process wasn't ready for it.
Questions we are asked most often.
What does Microsoft Security Copilot actually do?
It's a generative AI assistant built into the Microsoft security stack — Sentinel, Defender and Entra — that helps analysts summarise incidents, draft investigation queries, explain suspicious scripts or files in plain language, and pull together incident timelines faster than doing it manually. It works from the same telemetry your existing tools already collect.
Does Copilot replace our security analysts?
No, and anyone telling you otherwise is overselling it. Copilot accelerates the mechanical parts of investigation — querying, summarising, correlating — but decisions about severity, business impact and response still need a person who understands your organisation. We deploy it as a tool that makes analysts faster, not as a replacement for them.
Is Copilot accurate enough to act on without checking?
No. Like any generative AI tool, Copilot can produce plausible-sounding but incorrect summaries or suggestions, particularly on ambiguous or incomplete telemetry. We treat its output as a well-informed first draft that an analyst verifies against the underlying data before any action is taken, especially anything containment-related.
How is this priced?
Microsoft charges Security Copilot on a consumption basis tied to compute units used, which means cost scales with how much you actually use it. We help you scope realistic usage upfront so the ongoing cost is predictable rather than an unpleasant surprise on the first invoice.
Do we need Sentinel and Defender already in place?
Copilot is most useful when it has good telemetry to work from, so it delivers the most value once Sentinel and Defender are already deployed and reasonably tuned. Bolting Copilot onto an unmonitored or poorly configured estate gives it very little to actually accelerate.
What data does Copilot have access to?
It works within your existing Microsoft security tenant permissions and role-based access controls, drawing on the telemetry already available to Sentinel and Defender. It doesn't grant itself broader access than the analyst using it already has, which is an important control to understand and configure correctly.
Microsoft Sentinel managed SIEM
The telemetry foundation Security Copilot draws on to speed up investigation.
Microsoft Defender security services
Endpoint, email and identity signal that feeds directly into Copilot-assisted investigation.
Managed security services
The wider 24/7 monitoring and response service that AI-assisted tooling supports rather than replaces.
Curious whether your environment is ready for Security Copilot?
Book a free readiness check and we'll tell you honestly whether it will help, and what needs fixing first if it won't yet.
Book a free readiness check