When Gartner speaks, CISOs tend to listen. But every so often, Gartner doesn’t just speak—they sound the alarm.

That’s what happened when Gartner analysts Dennis Xu, Evgeny Mirolyubov, and John Watts released research urging organizations to block all AI browsers “for the foreseeable future.” In their view, today’s agentic browsers—like Perplexity Comet and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas—introduce serious risks that most organizations simply can’t manage yet. 

Media coverage picked up on the urgency. Computerworld and TechRadar Pro described Gartner’s position as a rare “hard stop,” especially for a category that’s still early in its evolution.

This isn’t a typical Gartner recommendation. It’s a signal that enterprise AI adoption has entered a phase where the risks are growing faster than the protections.

And importantly, it’s not a sign that Gartner is turning against AI. In fact, Gartner—and Dennis Xu in particular—has been one of the strongest industry voices supporting responsible AI adoption through frameworks like AI TRiSM and technology categories like AI Security Platforms. The message isn’t “don’t use AI.”
It’s “don’t use AI without real safeguards.”

Why This Warning Is So Significant

AI browsers don’t behave like traditional browsers. They behave like digital workers—complete with autonomy, initiative, and the ability to take action on behalf of users.

Gartner calls out how these browsers can:

• read whatever content is on the page
• send that data to cloud-based AI systems
• navigate authenticated sites
• perform tasks automatically
• make decisions based on prompts or contextual cues

All of this introduces new risks around data leakage, unintended transactions, credential misuse, and manipulated behavior. 

TechNewsWorld summed it up well: AI browsers promise convenience, but “behave more like unsupervised employees with access most workers would never have.”

These tools may act in ways users didn’t intend—and security teams may never see it happen. The default settings prioritize user experience, not enterprise protection. And since AI browsers are brand new, vulnerabilities are still being discovered in real time.

So when Gartner says block them, it’s because AI browsers represent more than a new interface. They represent a new category of agentic software that enterprises are not yet equipped to govern.

Gartner Isn’t Anti-AI — They’re Pro-Safe AI

Some might misread the browser-ban recommendation as a rejection of AI. In truth, Gartner has been one of the leading voices calling for responsible, secure AI adoption across enterprises.

Their AI TRiSM framework (Trust, Risk & Security Management) has become a go-to reference for AI governance — and appears in many industry analyses of GenAI risk. Gartner+1

More recently, Gartner recognized the rise of a new technology category: AI Security Platforms (AISPs). In “AI Security Platforms: Gartner’s Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2026,” Gartner argues that traditional cybersecurity tools alone won’t cut it — enterprises now need dedicated platforms designed to protect models, agents, data flows, and AI-driven workflows. PointGuard AI+1

One public write-up of this trend confirms how critical this shift is:

“As generative AI adoption accelerates, so do AI-native security risks that traditional tools cannot address.” PointGuard AI

So the message isn’t “don’t use AI.” It’s “don’t use AI without guardrails.”

AI Browsers Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg

AI browsers — with agentic behaviors, cloud-based backends, and automated capabilities — are likely the most visible and fastest-growing frontier. But they’re just one facet of a larger problem: enterprises have almost no visibility or control over AI usage, data flows, or agentic behavior.

As Gartner and industry reporting point out:

• Sensitive content — open tabs, documents, internal portals — can be sent to external AI back-ends without oversight, risking data leaks. The Hacker News
• Agentic AI can act autonomously: fill in forms, trigger transactions, navigate internal tools — all potentially without human review. TechRadar+1
• Traditional security tools are blind to AI intent. They monitor traffic and endpoints, not model reasoning or agentic decisions.

On its own, blocking AI browsers is a temporary fix — but it doesn’t solve the deeper problem: the lack of a unified, AI-native security layer capable of governing models, data, agents, and tool interactions across the enterprise.

What Enterprises Actually Need: A Hybrid Approach — Traditional Security + AI-Native Guardrails

Here’s where Gartner’s call aligns with what many security-minded organizations are realizing:

1. Maintain traditional cybersecurity hygiene — access controls, identity management, endpoint defenses, SASE/SSE, etc.
2. Adopt AI Security Platforms (AISPs) — systems that offer:
   
   • Discovery and inventory of all AI models, agents, and third-party AI services
   • Real-time monitoring of AI behavior: prompt use, agent actions, data access
   • Guardrails for sensitive data flow, preventing unintended leaks via AI tools
   • Governance for tool invocation, API access, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) usage
   • Ability to block or quarantine suspicious AI-driven actions before they cause harm

Gartner’s own AISP trend research emphasizes this layered approach: traditional security controls remain important — but they must be complemented by AI-aware protections. Security Boulevard+1

In short: AI security isn’t optional anymore. It’s foundational.

Why This Matters — Right Now

• Enterprises are rapidly adopting AI across tools, workflows, and internal services.
• Agentic AI and AI assistants are expanding the attack surface in ways traditional security tools weren’t designed to see.
• Regulatory pressure and compliance expectations around data privacy, model accountability, and supply-chain transparency are rising.
• As Gartner shows, when unchecked, this combination invites data leaks, credential theft, unauthorized actions, and large-scale risk — fast.

Blocking AI browsers buys time. But building a resilient AI security posture is the real path forward.

The Bottom Line

Gartner’s bold recommendation is a wake-up call — not a tech ban. The message is clear:

AI is not the enemy. Unsecured AI is the risk.

Organizations that move now to adopt AI-native security tools, governance frameworks, and visibility controls will gain the upper hand. Those that wait risk being forced into reactive “lockdown mode” every time a new AI risk emerges.

This is the moment to evolve cybersecurity—beyond networks and endpoints into data, models, agents, and intent.
Gartner has shown where the industry needs to go. The question is whether enterprises will follow — before the next wave of AI risk lands.