AI-Driven Threat Detection and Automated Incident Response for Enhancing Network Security

The growing sophistication of cyber threats has reduced the effectiveness of traditional cybersecurity tools in protecting modern organisations and complex networks. This challenge requires advanced solutions capable of real-time detection, rapid response, and efficient threat mitigation. In this context, AI-based approaches have emerged as a powerful enabler of intelligent, adaptive, and data-driven security operations. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of AI-driven threat detection combined with automated incident response mechanisms in modern cybersecurity architectures. The novelty of this work lies in the integration of advanced machine learning-based detection with real-time, automated response capabilities to address zero-day and previously unknown threats in heterogeneous digital environments. The paper examines system architecture design, implementation strategies, and performance evaluation across diverse deployment scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate that AI-driven detection with automated response significantly enhances cybersecurity effectiveness, achieving accuracies between 96% and 97%, dramatically reducing the mean response time from 45 min to less than 30 s, and substantially improving zero-day threat detection and containment success rates. Overall, the proposed approach achieves up to a 98.9% improvement in incident containment efficiency, highlighting the operational and defensive advantages of intelligent automation.