Artificial intelligence and machine learning, next-generation technology and safe development
Context-driven insights, faster, clearer decisions for automated fuel cyber teams
Michael Novinson (Michael Novinson)•
June 2, 2025
F5 has bought a San Francisco-based threat management startup led by a serial entrepreneur to bring Agent AI to the company’s application delivery and security platform.
See: Proof of Concept: Rethinking identity in the age of AI agents
The Seattle-based company said that Fletch will use AI and natural language processing to simplify cybersecurity by turning complex, vast amounts of data into clearly prioritized tasks. Fletch’s agent AI can autonomously correlate threat intelligence with internal data, F5 says, providing deep contextual intelligence, eliminating alert fatigue, and changing security teams from reactive to proactive operations.
“The security team is owned in data, alerts and logs,” said Kunal Anand, F5’s Chief Innovation Officer, in a blog post. “We need a practical context to reduce complexity and respond efficiently. By adding Fletch’s agent AI capabilities to the platform, we can provide even deeper insights, real-time threat intelligence, and proactive security recommendations that will help our team stay on the threat.”
Founded in 2020, Fletch employs 86 people and most recently received a $12.5 million Series A fund, led by True Ventures. The company has created a swipe-right IP that has become popular with dating apps like Tinder since it was launched by Grant Wernick, who co-founded and led by Natural Language Search Engine Insight Engines (F5 laid off 623 staff as 623 staff postponing new purchases).
What distinguishes Fletch from traditional AI systems
Fletch’s technology not only helps F5 customers understand what’s going on in their environment, but also know what to do right away, helping them bridge the gap between raw data and intelligent action. It combines vast amounts of log data with external threat intelligence to provide contextual decision-making response recommendations. This allows F5 to automate many of the security decision processes.
Unlike traditional AI systems that simply express data insights, Wernick said Fletch’s agent AI will take on the responsibility to put burdens on human analysts. In addition to flagging potential threats, it also takes the crucial steps of interpreting the context, connecting to known malicious behavior or threat groups, recommending assignment of remediation tasks and blocking specific IP addresses.
“Let’s say your security team receives thousands of alerts every day,” Wernick said. “Agent AI can analyze this noise, correlate it with external and internal data sources, and prioritize the most important threats before any compromise metrics are found. It also provides real-time context and “This IP address is associated with a known ransomware group, allowing you to assign tasks.”
With thousands of alerts poured into daily from numerous tools and data streams, Anand said it would be nearly impossible to know which alerts demand immediate attention and which are noise. Anand argues that Fletch integration directly addresses this issue by applying AI to intelligently reduce, filter and prioritize alerts that contain AI-generated recommendations about what actions to take.
“Customers gain deeper visibility into the environment and provide a more accurate assessment of potential risks through the smarter correlation between logs, threat intelligence and real-time alerts,” Anand said in a blog post. “Instead of being overwhelmed by thousands of alerts every day, security teams can see prioritized incidents and help them focus their efforts on the most important threats.”
What does the emergence of agent AI mean for security teams?
Wernick said Fletch’s platform will translate technical research into everyday languages, creating an environment where even analysts, engineers and non-technical executives can understand the organization’s security attitude. According to Wernick, this cybersecurity insight and clear communication of threats using AI allows for better decisions at all levels in the company.
“At Fletch, our mission has always been to simplify cybersecurity by turning the overwhelming amount of data into actionable insights that security teams can prioritize,” Wernick said in a blog post. “By leveraging AI and years of natural language processing know-how, organizations can transform complex data into clear, human-readable tasks, enabling faster and smarter decisions.”
Fletch’s prediction agents are designed to scan global cybersecurity signals and predict the threats that are most likely to affect a particular organization, Wernick said. Unlike traditional solutions that respond after a compromise indicator (IOC) is identified, predictors look at OSINT, internal telemetry and industry-specific threat signals to identify patterns and correlations that suggest immediate risk, Wernick said.
The emergence of Agent AI means security teams will no longer be buried under dashboards and logs, Wernick said. Instead, Wernick says it will be guided by an AI system that not only understands the situation of a threat, but also predicts it, providing strategic insights and recommendations before an incident occurs.
“We are excited to join F5 and expand our security-assisted work, and our IT teams will get tools to prioritize threats, recommend actionable tasks, and streamline workflows,” Wernick said in a blog post. “This will enhance security attitudes and reduce the time spent managing noise while running the infrastructure more efficiently.”
