Palo Alto Networks Buys Agentic AI Platform Console for Cortex

Palo Alto Networks (PANW ) announced on September 1, 2026, that it has acquired Console, an AI-native platform that enables agentic capabilities, in a transaction the cybersecurity company said will deepen the agentic capabilities of its Cortex security operations platform. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

In the announcement, issued from Santa Clara, California, Palo Alto Networks described Console as designed to help organizations apply AI-driven analysis and action across their enterprise operations, giving them what it called the force multiplier they need to resolve alerts, issues and requests at machine speed. The company said that as AI reshapes the threat landscape, organizations need a security platform that can operate with speed, context and operational discipline. Console will advance this vision, the company said, by deepening agentic capabilities in Cortex and supporting teams as they investigate signals, prioritize work and take action across their environment.

Nikesh Arora, chairman and chief executive officer of Palo Alto Networks, said in the announcement: “Security operations can no longer be about managing dashboards and queuing tickets just to help humans work faster. By bringing Console into Palo Alto Networks, our customers can have a direct conversation with data and build agentic workflows in natural language that helps alert and remediate issues automatically. This is the shift to software-as-an-agent, giving our platform the arms and legs to deliver autonomous security outcomes across the entire enterprise.”

Andrei Serban, co-founder and chief executive officer of Console, said: “We built Console around a simple idea: people should be able to express an operational goal, and intelligent software should handle the complexity required to achieve it.” Serban said Console’s customers have already proven that agents can dramatically slash overhead, and that joining Palo Alto Networks gives his team the security expertise, platform foundation and global scale to bring that approach to large enterprises.

What Console’s Platform Does

On its website, Console describes itself as the AI-native platform for IT service management, stating that it can automate 75% or more of service requests, continuously enforce access governance, and manage asset and business data with context-aware agents. The platform is organized into modules covering intelligent ticketing, natural-language workflow automation called Playbooks, access management and asset management, with an AI layer that includes a conversational assistant and background agents that scan for gaps and improvement opportunities. These components sit on what the company calls a Context Graph, a foundation it says connects every user, system, policy and ticket. Console lists more than 600 integrations and says customers can prompt the assistant to research API documentation and build new connectors without code or engineering resources.

Console’s published use cases span employee onboarding and offboarding, application access requests, password and multi-factor authentication resets, device lockout recovery, hardware requests, group membership management, and Slack and Teams channel operations, aimed at IT, human resources, legal, revenue operations, security and finance teams. The company states that it is HIPAA and SOC 2 Type II attested, addresses GDPR requirements, and offers single sign-on and SCIM provisioning, custom role-based access controls, step-up multi-factor authentication for high-risk actions, deterministic approvals for sensitive actions, and audit logs in native OCSF format for SIEM ingestion.

Console’s website names several customers and publishes their reported results. It says software company Cursor runs a four-person IT team against a 4:750 IT-to-employee ratio, with four teams using Console and more than 30 playbooks in place. Scale AI’s head of IT, Lovejit Mundi, is cited saying the company’s auto-resolution rate quadrupled after switching to Console, while Bloomerang’s vice president of IT, Seth Steward, is cited saying customer satisfaction scores rose from 84% to 94% after launching the platform. Synthesia’s head of IT, Samuel Williams, is cited saying Console already resolves 75% of requests autonomously. These figures are customer statements published by Console.

The Cortex Platform Context

The acquisition lands inside Palo Alto Networks’ existing agentic security operations offering. The company markets Cortex AgentiX as the next generation of Cortex XSOAR, describing agents that reason, plan and execute workflows to independently resolve incidents while remaining bound by the same roles and permissions as analysts, with human-in-the-loop approvals when needed. Palo Alto Networks states that more than 1,000 Cortex customers have enabled AgentiX.

Palo Alto Networks, which trades on Nasdaq under the ticker PANW, describes itself as the global AI cybersecurity leader, with a portfolio spanning network, cloud, security operations, AI and identity. The company says it is trusted by more than 70,000 customers and that its platforms are powered by Unit 42 threat intelligence.

The acquisition announcement was accompanied by forward-looking statements covering the anticipated benefits and impact of the transaction on Palo Alto Networks, Console and their customers. The company cautioned that any unreleased services or features referenced in its public statements may not be delivered when expected or at all, and referred readers to risk factors in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on June 2, 2026. The release presented the transaction as completed and did not detail a purchase price, consideration structure or integration timeline.