Gartner® Market Guide for Guardian Agents

AI agents need new trust, risk, and security oversight

AI agents are introducing new risks that outpace human review, yet most enterprises are unprepared to manage them due to fragmented organizational structures and ongoing challenges with discovery.

Per Gartner, “Guardian agents supervise AI agents, helping ensure agent actions align with goals and boundaries. They monitor and block risky actions and are evolving from a collection of services to autonomous agents that enforce policies across platforms. AI leaders can use this Guide to understand the market and vendors.”

The Gartner® Market Guide for Guardian Agents examines how organizations can approach AI agent oversight and evaluate the guardian agent market.

AI leaders can use the Gartner® Market Guide for Guardian Agents to understand the market and vendors.

Cato Networks is listed as a Representative Vendor in the report under IT or security platform vendors.

In Cato’s view, the report covers:

• Market overview: Gartner’s definition of guardian agents, key findings, and strategic planning assumptions
• Visibility as the critical starting point: Discovering, inventorying, mapping, and managing sanctioned and unsanctioned AI agents
• Guardian agent capabilities: AI visibility and traceability, continuous assurance and evaluation, and runtime inspection and enforcement
• Independent oversight: Prioritizing guardian agent solutions independent of AI agent platforms
• Provider evaluation: Assessing agent discovery, identity and access management, information governance, and policy enforcement requirements

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Gartner, Market Guide for Guardian Agents, By Avivah Litan, Daryl Plummer, 25 February 2026.

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