By Joana Guedes Pinto, SICC, FEUP
TensorOps, a Portuguese artificial intelligence services company founded in 2023 by Cláudio Lemos (who completed the Integrated Master’s Degree in Informatics and Computing Engineering at FEUP in 2021), recently announced a strategic partnership with Armis (acquired in late December by ServiceNow), one of the world’s leading names in cybersecurity. At the heart of this partnership is the development of a new generation of autonomous agents capable of operating in complex enterprise environments and responding, in real time, to increasingly sophisticated threats.
The collaboration comes at a particularly significant time for the sector. With the growing use of artificial intelligence by malicious actors, traditional defence systems face clear limitations. The joint initiative between TensorOps and Armis aims precisely to address this structural challenge, bridging the gap between detection and action.
“We are witnessing a radical shift: cyberattacks are no longer carried out solely by human hackers, but by offensive AI agents deployed by criminal and state-sponsored organisations,” explains Cláudio Lemos, CEO of TensorOps.
A Portuguese project with global impact
Although a young company, TensorOps was founded with a clear ambition: to build cutting-edge technology from Portugal. The company began to take shape in 2022, the result of a partnership between Cláudio Lemos and Gad Benram, and quickly adopted a strategy focused on international markets.
“From day one, our vision was very clear and distinct: we wanted to create a business model geared towards exporting national talent and services of excellence.”
Today, this strategy has become a concrete reality: the vast majority of the company’s clients are international, including some of the world’s largest technology organisations. “Our team works with 95% international clients, generating high-value revenue for the Portuguese economy.” This model not only validates the competitiveness of national talent but also reinforces Portugal’s role as a provider of highly specialised engineering.
The connection with Armis emerged organically, driven by the technical reputation and network of contacts of the TensorOps team within the global cybersecurity ecosystem. “It all began with a direct approach, based on our reputation and network.”
“We immediately realised it was a highly strategic project because Armis (recently acquired by ServiceNow for $7.75 billion) operates at the absolute cutting edge of the sector, and the challenge was to create something that simply does not yet exist on the market for businesses,” says Cláudio.
Building an “army” of autonomous agents
As part of this collaboration, TensorOps is developing an innovative system based on multiple artificial intelligence agents capable of acting in a coordinated manner. “We are building a ‘mini-army’ of defensive AI agents and integrating them into Armis’ proprietary environment.”
Unlike traditional solutions, based on fixed rules or reactive models, these agents introduce a new level of autonomy. “The AI agents we are developing are proactive and adaptable. They can assess the context of a threat in real time, reason about the best mitigation strategy and execute actions autonomously.”
This approach enables a response to the speed and sophistication of modern attacks, where isolated human intervention is no longer sufficient. The development of these systems poses significant technical challenges, particularly in terms of coordination between agents. “Ensuring that multiple AI agents communicate with one another, share threat context in real time and execute coordinated defence tactics is a formidable challenge in terms of software architecture and artificial intelligence,” explains the CEO of TensorOps.
Beyond algorithmic complexity, these systems must operate on critical infrastructure without compromising service continuity, further raising the bar. For Cláudio Lemos, the impact of this technology will cut across all areas of organisations.
The integration of autonomous agents will be as fundamental for companies in the coming decade as the transition to the cloud was in the past decade.
This new paradigm will entail a profound transformation in the way work is distributed between humans and machines. “Human teams will no longer be focused on performing repetitive tasks, but will instead take on roles of supervision, governance and strategy.”
Portugal as an AI engineering hub
TensorOps’s trajectory also illustrates the potential of the national technology ecosystem, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence. “It means proving that national talent is on a par with the best in Silicon Valley, London or Tel Aviv.”
For the CEO of TensorOps, the future lies in strengthening the commitment to innovation and the export of knowledge: “if we continue to focus our companies on exporting innovation and not just on selling cheap outsourcing hours, we have all the geographical, economic and intellectual conditions to be one of the main drivers of Artificial Intelligence in Europe.”
Still with his eyes fixed on the future, Cláudio does not hesitate to highlight the decisive role played by his training at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto in much of the success achieved today:
“More than specific programming languages, I feel that FEUP taught me to think in a structured way, to break down highly complex problems. That engineer’s mindset is something I use in my day-to-day work.”