# Sophos reduces threat investigation time by 96% using OpenAI Daybreak

Digest AI · Agents & Tools · published 2026-10-09T07:00:00Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/sophos-reduces-threat-investigation-time-by-96-using-openai-daybreak

## Summary

Sophos announced that its Managed Detection and Response (MDR) service now uses OpenAI Daybreak, an AI‑driven programme that combines OpenAI models with Sophos threat intelligence. The new agents have lowered the average response time for cases from about 38 minutes to roughly 89 seconds, a 96% reduction, and now automate about half of the cases.

The system, built on Sophos Fusion, pulls data from more than 500 third‑party integrations, generating trillions of events daily that are distilled into 1,000‑2,000 cases for nine security operations centres. An investigation agent gathers context and a planning model creates a plan‑execute‑review loop, producing summaries and recommended actions for analysts. Sophos reports that 52% of MDR cases are resolved end‑to‑end by AI while still keeping human oversight for potentially destructive actions.

John Peterson, Sophos’ chief technology officer, said the approach lets analysts focus on decisions that need expertise and helps the company scale without expanding scarce security staff. He warned that the same frontier models are also becoming available to attackers, underscoring the need for strong fundamentals such as patching and multi‑factor authentication.

## Key points

- Sophos’ AI agents cut average case response time from ~38 minutes to about 89 seconds, a 96% reduction.
- About 52% of MDR cases are now resolved end‑to‑end by AI agents built with OpenAI Daybreak.
- Sophos protects over 625,000 organisations and processes trillions of daily events through its Fusion platform.

## Why it matters

Cutting investigation time dramatically improves security operations efficiency, allowing analysts to focus on high‑impact decisions while scaling protection for hundreds of thousands of customers, and highlights how frontier AI can both strengthen defenses and be weaponized by attackers.

## Sources

1. [Sophos cuts threat investigation time by 96% with OpenAI Daybreak](https://openai.com/index/sophos) (OpenAI, 2026-10-09, primary source)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Sophos reduces threat investigation time by 96% using OpenAI Daybreak", 9 October 2026, https://digestai.news/story/sophos-reduces-threat-investigation-time-by-96-using-openai-daybreak

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