WatchGuard Adopts Multi-Model AI Strategy Through OpenAI And Anthropic Partnerships

Cybersecurity vendor WatchGuard Technologies is expanding its use of frontier AI models from multiple providers, joining both OpenAI’s Daybreak program and Anthropic’s Cyber Verification Program to bolster its vulnerability research and security testing capabilities.

The company is pursuing what it describes as a multi-model strategy, opting to work with AI systems from different providers rather than aligning with a single ecosystem. The approach is designed to allow WatchGuard’s security teams to evaluate and deploy whichever AI tools are most effective for specific cybersecurity use cases.

WatchGuard currently serves more than 25,000 MSPs and security partners who collectively help secure more than 1.5 million companies worldwide.

Countering AI-Powered Threats

The investment is framed as a response to the growing use of AI by threat actors, who are deploying the technology to automate reconnaissance, map attack paths and accelerate exploit development.

Marc Laliberte, Head of Security Operations at WatchGuard Technologies, pointed to the escalating arms race between attackers and defenders.

“AI is fundamentally changing cybersecurity for both defenders and attackers,” Laliberte stated. “Cybercriminals are already using these technologies to uncover weaknesses and accelerate attacks. Our responsibility is to ensure defenders benefit from equally powerful capabilities.”

How The AI Models Will Be Used

WatchGuard plans to integrate frontier AI capabilities from both OpenAI and Anthropic across several security functions. These include product security testing, penetration testing, red teaming, threat research and vulnerability remediation.

Through OpenAI’s Daybreak program, WatchGuard gains access to AI tools designed for defensive cybersecurity applications. The Anthropic Cyber Verification Program provides a separate set of capabilities that WatchGuard’s teams can apply to identifying and addressing security issues.

The company indicated it will use the multi-provider approach to rapidly assess emerging AI technologies and apply them in areas where they deliver the greatest defensive value, rather than being locked into a single vendor’s capabilities and roadmap.

Multi-Model Rationale

Joe Smolarski, Chief Executive Officer at WatchGuard Technologies, explained the reasoning behind working with multiple AI providers simultaneously.

“The future of cybersecurity won’t be built on a single AI model,” Smolarski remarked. “That’s why we’re aggressively investing across the frontier AI ecosystem, giving our teams access to advanced capabilities from multiple providers.”

“As these technologies evolve, we’ll continue evaluating, adopting and operationalising the innovations that help our partners and customers stay ahead of what’s next,” he added.

MSP-Focused Security

WatchGuard’s business model is centred on managed service providers, who rely on the company’s unified security platform to deliver network, endpoint, identity and cloud security to their end customers.

The company has positioned the AI investments as directly relevant to its MSP partner base, arguing that the organisations those partners protect depend on their security providers to evolve alongside a threat landscape that is increasingly shaped by AI-driven attacks.

WatchGuard’s unified security platform is built around a Zero Trust-aligned architecture that combines multiple security functions into a single integrated platform, with the goal of reducing operational complexity for MSPs managing security across large numbers of customer environments.

The company has operated in the cybersecurity market for more than 30 years, with a consistent focus on building tools and platforms designed for the managed services channel.

Last Updated on July 23, 2026 by Nick Ross