Agentic AI: What It Is and How to Keep It on a Leash
Artificial intelligence (AI) is having its moment (a rather long and lasting moment, lol), and a new flavor of it is popping up in businesses everywhere. It's called agentic AI. You've probably heard the term tossed around in meetings, seen it on LinkedIn, or had a vendor try to sell it to you. But what is it, really? And more importantly, how do you keep it from becoming your next big security headache?
Let's break it down. No jargon. Just what you need to know.
Part 1: What Is Agentic AI?
Most of us picture AI as a chatbot (aka generative AI). You type a question, and it spits out an answer. You ask it to draft an email, and it does. Helpful, sure. But it just sits there and waits. It doesn't do a thing until you tell it to.
Agentic AI is different. It doesn't just answer. It acts.
Agentic AI Defined
Agentic AI is AI that uses generative AI as a tool to carry out a whole series of tasks.
Think of it this way. Generative AI is like a brilliant intern who waits for you to ask. It answers based on its training data, writes a marketing email, or drafts some code. Agentic AI goes a step further. It uses generative AI as a tool to carry out a whole series of tasks. It's like handing a project to an employee. You say, "Handle our overdue invoices," and it goes off and does it. It pulls the account records, drafts the reminder emails, sends them, follows up a week later, and reports back when the job is done.
The keyword here is autonomy. An agentic AI can map out a series of steps, use software tools on its own, make decisions as it goes, and adjust its approach based on what it encounters. It doesn't need you holding its hand at every turn.
That's the magic. It's also the risk.
There are a few risks worth stating here. Can agentic AI actually pull off these complex tasks at scale? Do the benefits outweigh the costs, both economic and environmental, of work this computationally demanding? Those are fair questions, but I'll set them aside for now. In this article, I want to focus on the security risks of agentic AI.
The moment you give something the power to act on its own, you've created a new kind of worker inside your business. One that moves at machine speed, never sleeps, and can touch your systems, your data, and your customers. That changes the security conversation completely.
Part 2: How to Secure Agentic AI
For years, we've focused our security on two things: people and systems. We train employees not to click on sketchy links. We build firewalls to keep the bad guys out. Agentic AI doesn't fit neatly into either bucket. It isn't a person, but it acts like one. It isn't just a system, because it makes its “own” choices.
So here's the mindset shift. Treat your AI agent like a new hire who happens to have a badge, a login, and access to your tools. You wouldn't give a brand-new employee the keys to everything on day one. Don't do it with an agent either.
Here are four ways to keep it secure. These are the things you should be thinking about, whether you are developing an in-house solution or relying on a vendor's.
PRO-TIP
It is critical that you ask vendors if their agentic AI solution helps you address these concerns (1 -4). If not, you may want to chat with another vendor.
Give it the least access it needs. This is an old security principle, and it matters more than ever here. An agent that handles your calendar has no business touching your payroll system. Limit what each agent can reach to exactly what its job requires, and nothing more. If it gets compromised, you want the damage contained.
Keep a human in the loop for the big stuff. Let the agent handle routine tasks on its own. But for high-stakes actions, like moving money, deleting records, or sending messages to customers, require a person to sign off first. A quick approval step can save you from a very bad day.
Watch everything it does. Every action your agent takes should be logged. If something goes wrong, you need a clear trail showing what it did, when, and why. No log means no accountability, and no way to figure out what happened. You can't protect what you can't see.
Treat every input as untrusted. Here's a sneaky one. Agents read information from the outside world, like emails, web pages, and documents. A clever attacker can hide instructions inside that content to trick your agent into doing something it shouldn't. It's a real attack, and it's growing fast. Assume anything your agent reads could be a trap, and build guardrails around what it's allowed to act on.
The Bottom Line
Agentic AI is powerful, and it's coming, you're ready or not. Used well, it could be like adding a tireless team member who handles the busywork so your people can focus on the more complex, nuanced tasks.
But power without control is just risk waiting to happen. Remember, treat it like the new hire it is. And with new hires, you have to give them clear, well-defined boundaries, monitor their activity, and never forget that an agent with access to your systems is both an asset and a target.
You had me at 'hello.' Now share share this article with all your besties, or else! 😉
