Security teams have long relied on employees to report suspicious emails. It’s a crucial layer of defense that empowers people to raise the alarm when something doesn’t look right. But the reality inside most SOCs is far from efficient.

Instead of surfacing true threats, user-reported emails often overwhelm analysts with noise. The majority are graymail, spam, or safe messages that simply “look off.” And because every report must be reviewed, SOC teams spend hours triaging submissions that rarely add security value.

Unsurprisingly, this results in analysts feeling buried under manual tasks, response times slowing down, and employees growing frustrated when they don’t get feedback on their reports. What should strengthen security instead becomes a source of fatigue and burnout.

This problem exists against the backdrop of mounting SOC pressures. According to the SANS SOC Survey, analysts already spend as much as 50% of their time triaging alerts rather than responding to real threats. Add in a global shortage of skilled resources and the rising sophistication of AI-powered attacks, and it’s clear why 71% of SOC professionals report experiencing some level of burnout.

User-reported emails only make this worse. The intention is good, but the manual workload creates more risk than reward.

Despite the noise, there’s real value in what employees submit. Every report is a sign of vigilance and a workforce paying attention. A single submission could be the earliest signal of a phishing campaign. And each interaction is an opportunity to build awareness, reinforcing what suspicious activity looks like in real-world context.

Additionally, each user interaction is a training opportunity in disguise. When an employee submits a report and gets clear feedback—whether confirming it was malicious or explaining why it was safe—it reinforces their instincts. Over time, this cycle builds sharper awareness and strengthens the organization’s overall security posture.

The real challenge isn’t the reports themselves, it’s the way they’re handled. Traditional SOC processes make it nearly impossible to sift through submissions at scale, let alone use them to educate employees or detect campaigns proactively. As a result, the potential value of user reports is often lost in a sea of manual triage and delayed responses.

AI-driven automation flips the script by streamlining user-reported email workflows from end to end. Instead of forcing analysts to manually review each message, AI can instantly inspect, categorize, and remediate threats. Malicious messages don’t linger in inboxes—they’re automatically removed across the organization.

The shift is just as powerful for employees. Instead of silence, they get an immediate, intelligent response with reassurance when their report is safe, gratitude when they’ve flagged something dangerous, and guidance to help them spot future threats. In seconds, a one-way workflow becomes a two-way conversation.

Some organizations report saving thousands of analyst hours annually by automating this process. And because AI continues to learn from past incidents, it not only improves efficiency but also strengthens detection accuracy over time.

When automation takes on the burden of noisy user reports, the dynamic inside the SOC changes dramatically. What was once a constant drain of time and energy becomes a source of measurable value.

Analysts see immediate gains in productivity. Instead of spending hours sifting through harmless submissions, they can focus on high-impact investigations and proactive threat hunting—the kind of work that strengthens an organization’s overall security posture. This shift is critical at a time when many analysts report that manual, reactive tasks are stalling their career growth.

The benefits aren’t only operational. SOC teams feel the difference too, with 75% of analysts reporting that AI adoption has already improved their job satisfaction.

User reports will always be part of the security equation and that’s a good thing. A vigilant workforce is an invaluable defense against phishing, social engineering, and other human-targeted attacks. But without automation, those reports create more work than value, overwhelming SOCs and draining resources that should be focused on higher-priority threats.

With an AI-driven approach, security leaders can flip this challenge into an advantage. Instead of noise, user-reported emails become a source of actionable intelligence, faster detection, and stronger collaboration across the workforce. This is the opportunity in front of every organization to turn everyday vigilance into enterprise-wide resilience.

Want to see how AI can help you get there? Download the CISO Guide to SOC Productivity for a deeper look at how automation reduces SOC effort by up to 95% while strengthening both analyst satisfaction and organizational security.