How Agentic AI Simplifies Cybersecurity and Modern Threat Management

F5 Newsroom Staff

Managing cybersecurity in today’s digital-first world is more challenging than ever. The rise of AI, hybrid multicloud environments, and distributed architectures has increased complexity exponentially, making it harder for organizations to manage and secure their data, applications, and APIs. Security teams are drowning in alerts, yet starving for clarity. The result? Alert fatigue, missed threats, and reactive postures.

At F5, we believe complexity should be abstracted, not accepted. That’s why we’re excited to announce our acquisition of Fletch, a cybersecurity innovator that turns external threat intel and internal logs into real-time, prioritized insights. Fletch’s agentic AI capabilities will be fully integrated into the F5 Application Delivery and Security Platform (ADSP), transforming how teams navigate modern security chaos.

We sat down with Kunal Anand, F5’s Chief Innovation Officer, and Grant Wernick, Founder and CEO of Fletch, to explore how natural language processing (NLP), agentic AI, and advanced analytics will transform the way security teams protect their environments in an increasingly connected world.

Q: Welcome to F5, Grant! To start, can you introduce yourself and share a bit about Fletch’s mission?

Grant Wernick: Thank you! At Fletch, our mission has always been to simplify cybersecurity by turning overwhelming amounts of data into actionable insights that security teams can prioritize and act on. By leveraging AI and years of natural language processing know-how, we help organizations translate complex data into clear, human-readable tasks, enabling faster and smarter decision-making.

I’ve spent much of my career at the intersection of AI, machine learning, and cybersecurity, founding startups that focus on transforming how we interact with data. At Fletch, we took these principles deeper into the cybersecurity domain, creating one of the world’s first cyberthreat AI platforms that empowers teams to cut through the noise, focus resources efficiently, and act proactively in the face of evolving threats. Joining F5 is an exciting opportunity to scale these innovations and help secure today’s increasingly complex, connected environments.

Q: Kunal, how does Fletch’s technology align with F5's broader goals and the vision for the F5 ADSP?

Kunal Anand: Great question. At F5, we focus on enabling our customers to securely deliver extraordinary digital experiences for their users. With applications driving so much of our connected world, we need to ensure they’re performant and secure. The cybersecurity landscape is more complex than ever, with hybrid multicloud environments, distributed systems, and a rising number of sophisticated attacks.

Security teams are drowning in data, alerts, and logs. They need actionable context to reduce complexity and respond efficiently. By adding Fletch’s agentic AI capabilities to our platform, we can provide even deeper insights, real-time threat intelligence, and proactive security recommendations that empower teams to stay ahead of threats.

Q: Grant, could you elaborate on what “agentic AI” is and how it works in practice?

Grant Wernick: Absolutely. At its core, agentic AI represents AI that doesn’t just process data—it takes proactive action.

For example, let’s say a security team receives thousands of alerts daily. Agentic AI can analyze this noise, correlate it with external and internal data sources, and prioritize the most critical threats, often before an Indicator of Compromise is found. It can also provide real-time context and assign tasks to other agents, such as, “This IP address is associated with a known ransomware group so block it” or, “This anomalous activity is likely benign based on similar past behavior, so close this ticket.”

By embedding these capabilities into the F5 ADSP, we’re enabling security professionals to focus on what matters most—protecting their organization—while reducing time spent sifting through noise.

Q: Kunal, what specific benefits can customers expect from integrating agentic AI into F5’s platform?

Kunal Anand: There are several transformative benefits, but I’ll focus on three key areas:

• Enhanced security analytics: Customers will gain deeper visibility into their environments with smarter correlations between logs, threat intelligence, and real-time alerts, resulting in more accurate assessments of potential risks.
• Reduced alert fatigue: Instead of being overwhelmed by thousands of daily alerts, security teams will see prioritized incidents, helping them focus their efforts on the most critical threats.
• Proactive recommendations: With the help of agentic AI, the platform won’t just tell you there’s a problem—it will recommend steps to remediate it. This could range from blocking malicious IPs to adjusting application security policies to preemptively mitigating specific vulnerabilities.

Q: As organizations face increasingly complex security challenges, what final thoughts would you like to leave with our customers?

Grant Wernick: I’m thrilled to join F5 and to scale our work helping security and IT teams gain tools that prioritize threats, recommend actionable tasks, and streamline workflows. This will enable them to spend less time managing noise, while strengthening their security posture and running their infrastructure more efficiently.

Kunal Anand: Security is no longer about visibility alone—it’s about velocity. Fletch helps us accelerate security outcomes across apps, APIs, and infrastructure. With F5 ADSP plus agentic AI, we’re not just reacting faster; we’re predicting smarter and protecting better. This is a big leap forward for intelligent, AI-native security. I’m incredibly excited about what’s on the horizon. F5 is at the forefront of driving innovation in application delivery and security, and the addition of Fletch’s technology and expertise will only accelerate our ability to empower organizations to solve their most pressing security challenges.

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F5 Newsroom Staff

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