Traditional security operations have a visibility problem. Despite heavy investments in detection tools, many organizations still miss stealthy, multi-stage attacks until after the damage is done.
According to Gartner’s “Prioritize Threat Hunting for the Early Detection of Stealthy Attacks” (Oct 2025), alert-based systems alone cannot keep pace with modern adversaries. In fact, organizations without structured, risk-informed hunting programs face significantly higher breach impacts - while those that proactively hunt detect advanced threats 11 days earlier and save $1.3M per incident on average.
So why aren’t more teams hunting today?
Because hunting has long been seen as time-consuming, specialized, and out of reach for already overstretched SOCs.
That’s changing - thanks to AI.
From Reactive Defense to Proactive, Outcome-Driven Threat Hunting
Gartner recommends that security leaders move beyond reactive alert triage and operationalize a structured, outcome-driven threat hunting program. The goal isn’t to chase every anomaly but to deliver measurable improvements across three key outcomes:
- Broader threat coverage - detecting what signature-based systems miss
- Faster incident handling - reducing mean time to respond (MTTR)
- Deeper visibility into stealthy attacker tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs)
But achieving these outcomes requires a shift in mindset.
Instead of ad hoc hunts, Gartner advises mapping campaigns to high-priority assets, current threat intelligence, and known detection gaps. And because skilled hunters are scarce, organizations should start by upskilling existing team members and embedding part-time hunting into existing SOC workflows, then scale as maturity grows.
That’s exactly where AI-driven threat hunting can help.
Operationalizing Threat Hunting with Vectra AI’s Hybrid NDR Platform
At Vectra AI, we believe every analyst should be able to proactively hunt effectively - without needing to be an expert or write complex queries. The Vectra AI Platform operationalizes threat hunting in line with Gartner’s recommendations by combining AI-driven context, structured workflows, and Gen-AI guided search across network, identity, and cloud environments.
Vectra AI-Enhanced Metadata: The Foundation of Visibility
Effective hunting starts with contextualization.
The Vectra AI Hybrid NDR Platform brings together enriched metadata from over 25 sources and 300+ fields, spanning your hybrid environment - from data centers, campuses, IoT & OT, and remote locations to private cloud, cloud infrastructure (IaaS), cloud identities and cloud applications (SaaS), including Microsoft Entra ID, Azure, AWS, Microsoft 365 and Copilot for M365.
This AI-enhanced data provides the complete picture needed to identify stealthy behaviors that often evade point tools. Instead of scattered logs and disconnected queries, analysts can see the full narrative of an attack in one place.
Vectra AI-Assisted Search: From Question to Clarity
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Hunting no longer requires deep technical expertise. With Vectra AI-Assisted Search, powered by Generative AI technology , analysts can ask investigative and hunting questions in plain language and get immediate, context-rich answers.
Whether it’s “Who accessed our Key Vault in the last 24 hours?”, “Are there any hosts using weak ciphers?” or “What indicators of Scattered Spider could I look for in my environment?”, Vectra AI delivers the data, context, and even recommended next steps to accelerate investigation and response.
This capability democratizes hunting, aligning with Gartner’s call to upskill existing SOC analysts and embed hypothesis-driven investigations into daily operations.
Vectra AI 5 Minute Hunts: From Contextual Insight to Action
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To make hunting both accessible and actionable, Vectra AI introduced 5 Minute Hunts - weekly, guided hunts curated by our research team. Each one highlights a relevant attacker behavior, such as SMB file sharing of sensitive data or unusual JA4 fingerprints, and provides the query logic, security implications, and step-by-step recommendations.
For SOC teams, this means hunting becomes a habit, not a hurdle. Analysts can explore their environment, validate exposure, ensure adherence to security governance frameworks, detect misconfigurations or noncompliant account behaviors, identify unauthorized data access, close compliance gaps and improve detection coverage in minutes - fulfilling Gartner’s vision of structured, repeatable hunts aligned with evolving adversary tactics.
Accelerated Investigation and Response
Vectra AI doesn’t just help find threats earlier - it helps resolve them faster.
Our AI-driven correlation automatically links related behaviors across users, hosts, and domains, enabling analysts to move from alert to full context in a single click. Capabilities like Attack Graphs and Instant Investigation help teams visualize the scope and origin of an attack, while AI-enhanced metadata and saved searches make follow-up investigation seamless. And when it’s time to act, Vectra AI’s native, integrated, and managed response capabilities enable rapid containment - helping security teams stop hybrid attacks before damage occurs.
Need Help Hunting? Let Vectra MDR Do It For You
Not every organization has the time or resources to build a dedicated threat hunting program.
That’s where Vectra MDR (Managed Detection and Response) adds value.
Vectra MDR combines the expertise of our threat hunters with the AI-driven contextualization of the Vectra AI Platform to monitor, investigate, and respond to threats on your behalf - 24/7. Our analysts continuously hunt for early-stage compromise, validate detections, and surface high-fidelity insights, freeing your team to focus on strategic initiatives while enabling proactive defense.
Whether you’re building your own hunting program or looking to offload the effort entirely, Vectra MDR ensures your organization never misses what matters.
Real-World Results: Advens Reduces Risk and Compliance Exposure with Vectra AI’s Hybrid NDR Platform
Threat hunting with Vectra AI doesn’t just accelerate detection - it also closes compliance gaps.
Advens, a leading managed security services provider (MSSP) supporting nearly 200 clients, uses the Vectra AI Platform to unify visibility across network, identity, and cloud environments. With enriched metadata and AI-driven detections, the Advens team has achieved up to 100x faster investigations, uncovering hidden attacker behaviors and closing compliance gaps their clients never knew existed.
As Sébastien Wojcicki, Head of Operations & Security Excellence at Advens, explains:
“We get absolutely a lot of value from hunting for compliance-based violations in the platform. Even during early test deployments, the first thing we do is crawl Vectra AI’s metadata to uncover bad behaviors - things like ID documents stored in open file shares or users accessing sensitive HR files. It gives CISOs immediate visibility to say, ‘This behavior needs to stop.’ That not only prevents these issues from staying hidden but also helps customers avoid audit findings, costly fines, and the reputational damage that comes with compliance failures.”
By pairing proactive threat hunting with AI-enhanced visibility, Advens helps its customers stay ahead of both attackers and auditors - transforming hunting from a reactive task into a business-critical control that reduces compliance risk.
Turning Gartner’s KPIs into Reality
With these capabilities, organizations can operationalize Gartner’s recommendations immediately - no new headcount or complex setup required.
Start Small, Scale Fast
Threat hunting doesn’t have to be complicated or reserved for elite teams.
By combining AI-driven context with guided, structured hunts, the Vectra AI Platform helps organizations of all maturity levels take the first step toward measurable, proactive defense.
- Start small. Run a 5 Minute Hunt this week.
- Ask a question with AI-Assisted Search.
- Or partner with Vectra MDR to have experts do it for you.
Every small action builds clarity - and that clarity stops attacks before they become breaches.
Watch how AI-Assisted Search, 5 Minute Hunts, and Vectra MDR make threat hunting faster and more accessible.
For practical guidance on getting started, check out our blog Behind the Hunt: Real-World Threat Hunting Practices and How Vectra AI Makes the Difference for hands-on threat hunting tips from security experts.