F5 Platform Expands AI-Powered XOps Automation and Customization Capabilities

F5 (NASDAQ: FFIV), a leading authority in application delivery and security, has unveiled a new wave of automation capabilities designed to reduce operational friction for cross-functional teams navigating hybrid, multicloud, and AI-integrated environments. At the core of this innovation is the enhanced F5 AI Assistant, now embedded with natural language processing that unifies user interactions across F5 BIG-IP, NGINX One, and Distributed Cloud Services. This evolution introduces a critical feature, automated iRules code generation, that allows both novice and expert teams to configure, customize, and scale solutions tailored to specific enterprise environments with remarkable ease.

Navigating Complexity in an Expanding Digital Ecosystem

As digital infrastructure becomes more distributed and AI workloads continue to rise, organizations are grappling with the dual challenge of maintaining velocity while simplifying increasingly convoluted workflows. F5’s latest AI advancements provide a solution to this operational challenge. The integration of iRules code generation into the F5 AI Assistant streamlines application configuration and enhances process optimisation. More importantly, it expands programmability, allowing enterprises to adapt their security posture and application delivery in real time, with minimal manual input.

“The programmability of iRules has long proved essential for customers and served as a compelling differentiator,” said Kunal Anand, Chief Innovation Officer at F5. “What we’re doing now is making that power instantaneous. With AI Assistant and iRules code generation, any operator can use natural language to generate or explain iRules on the fly. This means they can adapt to application changes or security events with far greater speed and efficiency, ensuring the policy that protects their infrastructure can evolve as fast as their business does.”

Transforming Application Delivery and Security Management

The transformation isn’t limited to automation alone, it extends to how enterprises fundamentally manage risk, deploy applications, and respond to emerging threats. Through seamless generation of tailored iRules and improved visibility into application behaviour, F5’s AI Assistant is reshaping the way application delivery and security workflows are executed. As part of its forward-looking roadmap, F5 plans to extend the Assistant’s agentic AI capabilities, paving the way for more autonomous security decision-making, enhanced threat detection, and predictive analytics. These enhancements are powered by the F5 AI Data Fabric, which enables robust dataset labelling and model training to support the platform’s intelligence.

A Strategic Enabler for Cross-Functional Teams

The introduction of intelligent automation across F5’s Application Delivery and Security Platform is poised to significantly enhance collaboration among XOps teams. By embedding targeted, real-time intelligence into familiar operational environments, F5 AI Assistant transforms decision-making processes across critical roles. DevOps can eliminate routine configuration drudgery, focusing instead on innovation. SecOps teams benefit from sharper insights that reduce false positives and accelerate threat mitigation. Network operators gain the ability to monitor and optimize traffic flows more dynamically. Platform engineers are empowered to enforce consistency and reduce error margins across fragmented infrastructures. Even CISOs are better equipped to evaluate application-layer vulnerabilities and align strategic responses with business goals.

Unlocking the Power of iRules with Automation

Central to F5’s new offering is the reinvention of iRules, the scripting language that allows teams to dynamically shape traffic behaviour and enforce security policies. While more than 85% of BIG-IP customers already depend on iRules, the traditional process of crafting and validating them has often been complex and time-consuming. With the new AI Assistant’s code generation feature, these scripts can now be created, validated, and deployed within minutes. The interface uses natural language prompts, enabling users to articulate needs in simple terms and receive fully functional scripts in return. Alongside this, the Assistant provides interpretive guidance, breaking down iRules logic, syntax, and operational purpose, helping teams both trust and understand the automation behind their configurations.

Accelerating Outcomes Across the Enterprise

By embedding AI deeper into the operational fabric, F5 delivers measurable benefits that go beyond mere productivity gains. Teams can now deploy mission-critical applications faster, reduce downtime, and maintain a stronger security posture even as systems scale and evolve. The acceleration of deployment cycles is not just about speed, it reflects higher accuracy through validated, context-aware code. Reduced configuration errors mean fewer outages and vulnerabilities. Freed from manual, repetitive tasks, teams can instead devote their efforts to strategic projects that differentiate customer experience and drive innovation.

Optimized for Scale, Security, and Precision

The success of these tools lies in their domain specificity. Unlike off-the-shelf AI tools, the F5 AI Assistant is trained on proprietary datasets sourced directly from the company’s deep engineering knowledge of application delivery and security. This ensures recommendations are not only accurate but aligned with real-world infrastructure challenges. The unified nature of the platform allows teams to close visibility gaps, preempt performance issues, and transition from reactive firefighting to proactive governance. Whether deployed in private data centers or across multicloud ecosystems, F5’s solutions are built to scale securely and intelligently with enterprise demands.

A New Paradigm for Intelligent Operations

F5’s advancements represent more than just feature updates, they mark a shift in how enterprises manage the growing complexity of digital infrastructure. With AI deeply embedded across every layer of its Application Delivery and Security Platform, F5 is enabling organizations to evolve into more agile, secure, and data-driven entities. The result is a modern operations paradigm where human expertise is amplified by intelligent automation, unlocking new possibilities in application management, threat response, and strategic innovation.

“F5 iRules have long been recognized as the industry’s most powerful and flexible solution for complex application requirements, delivering unmatched low-level control not available on other platforms,” said T.J. Vreugdenhil, Sr. Solutions Architect at SHI. “Traditionally, building and maintaining iRules required significant expertise. F5 AI Assistant dramatically reduces this complexity, empowering organizations to retain deep control while streamlining rule creation and management. By leveraging ‘F5-validated’ trained data, it produces outputs engineers can trust, boosting confidence and accelerating innovation. Importantly, F5 AI Assistant also ensures sensitive iRules data remains secure, never exposed to third-party or external AI tools.”