AI Agents / Agentic AI

AI agents are intelligent software entities that operate autonomously or semi-autonomously to perform tasks, make decisions, and interact with digital or physical environments. Unlike traditional software scripts, AI agents exhibit goal-driven behavior—leveraging reasoning, learning, and planning to achieve objectives without requiring constant human input.

These agents can be:

• Reactive, responding to environmental inputs with predefined actions.
• Proactive, making decisions based on goals and planning.
• Interactive, collaborating with users or other agents in real time.

In the modern AI landscape, agents are increasingly used in combination with large language models (LLMs) to create multi-tool orchestration systems. For example, an AI agent might:

• Use natural language to interpret a request,
• Query a database,
• Call APIs to retrieve external data,
• Execute logic to fulfill a workflow,
• And summarize the outcome for the user.

Use cases include customer service bots, coding assistants, automated research tools, and robotic process automation (RPA). Some agents operate in enterprise environments, while others are embedded in consumer products or platforms like LangChain and AutoGPT.

While powerful, AI agents introduce new security and operational risks:

• Unbounded actions: Agents connected to APIs or tools may act beyond their intended scope.
• Prompt injection: Attackers can manipulate agent inputs to hijack control flow.
• Data leakage: Agents that summarize or relay data may expose sensitive information.
• Decision errors: Poor reasoning or insufficient guardrails can result in incorrect or unsafe actions.

Because agents often combine multiple systems and operate over time, traditional security monitoring is insufficient. Organizations need dynamic oversight, fine-grained control over agent permissions, and real-time detection of abnormal or harmful behavior.

How PointGuard AI Addresses This:
PointGuard AI secures AI agents at runtime by continuously monitoring their external interactions. The platform enforces guardrails that prevent misuse, detect prompt injections, and restrict agent behaviors based on policy. With PointGuard, organizations gain visibility and control over autonomous systems—ensuring AI agents remain aligned with user intent, business rules, and security posture.

Resources:

IBM: What are AI agents?

Microsoft: AI Agents

NVIDIA Blog: What is Agentic AI?