Cisco has introduced Cloud Control, a new software platform designed to help businesses and government organizations build and manage AI agents that can protect IT infrastructure against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
The platform enables organizations to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of monitoring systems, identifying vulnerabilities, responding to attacks, and assisting with security operations at machine scale.
Cisco executives said the growing use of AI by cybercriminals is forcing defenders to adopt similar technologies. As attackers increasingly leverage automated AI tools to identify weaknesses and launch attacks, security teams are facing pressure to automate detection and response capabilities.
To accelerate adoption, Cisco is also launching a marketplace that will allow customers to access third-party AI development tools directly through the platform. The first integrated offering will be OpenAI’s Codex coding agent, which will be embedded into Cloud Control to help organizations build custom AI workflows and security agents.
The Cloud Control platform is available immediately in North America, while the marketplace for third-party AI tools is expected to launch later in 2026.
The announcement comes as concerns grow around the cybersecurity implications of increasingly powerful AI models. Industry attention has recently focused on Anthropic’s Mythos model, which has sparked debate among policymakers and security experts over the potential for advanced AI systems to accelerate both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.
Cisco’s launch reflects a broader shift toward autonomous cybersecurity operations, where organizations deploy fleets of AI agents to monitor networks, analyze threats, and respond to incidents in real time. The strategy also aligns with the company’s wider AI transformation efforts, including recent investments in AI networking infrastructure and workforce restructuring to support long-term AI growth.
