Gartner® Report: Market Guide for Guardian Agents
As AI agents become embedded in critical processes, traditional controls struggle to keep up with new risks, behaviors, and access patterns. Guardian agents provide an additional oversight layer that helps security and risk leaders monitor and govern AI agents in real time.
According to Gartner, “Through 2028, at least 80% of unauthorized AI agent transactions will be caused by internal violations of enterprise policies concerning information oversharing, unacceptable use or misguided AI behavior rather than from malicious attacks.”
Use this report to understand the guardian agent landscape and identify which capabilities we believe matter most for your AI initiatives and risk profile.
Our key takeaways from the report:
- How Gartner defines guardian agents and where they fit within AI TRiSM and AI governance strategies
- How to think about agent discovery, identity and access management, information governance, and policy enforcement for AI agents
- Why organizations need independent guardian agents that work across platforms, clouds, and identity systems
- How guardian agents support continuous observability, logging, and auditability for AI agents and their actions
- AI leaders can leverage this report to understand the market and vendors
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Gartner, Market Guide for Guardian Agents, By Avivah Litan, Daryl Plummer, Carlton Sapp, Dionisio Zumerle, Tom Coshow, Max Goss, Lauren Kornutick, 24 Feb 2026.
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