Zscaler Doubles Down on AI Security with Strategic Investments to Secure the Agentic Enterprise
Zscaler, Inc., the cybersecurity platform for the AI era, announced two strategic investments that significantly expand its AI security capabilities for the agentic enterprise. First, Zscaler announced its intent to acquire Symmetry Systems, Inc., a pioneer in identity mapping and data access for AI security, combining Zero Trust and Access Graph Technology to map and secure AI agent communication. Second, Zscaler launched Project AI-Guardian, an expanded strategic collaboration with key Global System Integrator (GSI) partners including Cognizant, EY, HCLTech, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro designed to help enterprises navigate the complexities of the AI-driven landscape.
Enterprise AI adoption is accelerating, but the security models built for human users were never designed for autonomous agents. AI agents operate independently across systems using ephemeral identities and inherited permissions, and their numbers are growing exponentially, creating critical blind spots around what data they touch, why, and on whose behalf. The policies that worked for users will not scale to millions of autonomous agents communicating with applications, data, and one another. At the same time, as AI agents and autonomous workloads accelerate organizations into an “agentic world,” the attack surface expands exponentially, introducing indirect prompt-injection paths and permission chains that sprawl far beyond existing controls. Zscaler’s two announcements address both halves of this challenge the technology foundation and the implementation expertise enterprises need to deploy AI safely at scale.
The Symmetry Systems acquisition adds an access graph that ingests enterprise-wide access logs from SaaS applications, public cloud services, data stores, and AI systems, using AI to correlate them into an access graph displaying which identities are accessing which data and how. Combined with the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™, this unlocks new capabilities including deploying AI agents with confidence, building least-privilege policies for AI, tracing full data lineage, detecting and containing anomalies instantly, and calculating blast radius if an agent or identity is compromised. Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the coming days.
Through Project AI-Guardian, GSI partners will leverage Zscaler’s AI Protect portfolio including AI Asset Management, Secure Access to AI, and Secure AI Infrastructure and Apps to build specialized AI Discovery and Risk Mitigation functions, help organizations discover shadow AI, understand how data and identity connect with AI assets providing AI lineage, and uncover associated AI risks such as supply chain risks, posture risks, and sensitive data risks.
“As enterprises rapidly adopt AI, the old playbook for governing access built around users and directories cannot scale to millions of AI agents,” said Jay Chaudhry, Chairman and CEO of Zscaler. “With Symmetry Systems, we are adding the access graph that maps how every identity, application, and data source connects across the enterprise. This foundational visibility is what Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange will use to govern agent-to-application and agent-to-agent communication at scale, giving customers the actionable control they need to safely embrace AI.”
“Symmetry Systems’ mission is deep security research that earns real customer love. Zscaler is an inspiration on both counts,” said Mohit Tiwari, CEO, Symmetry Systems. “We believe the dominant security platforms of the AI era will govern how information flows between identities across zero-trust networks. As AI disintermediates applications, endpoints, and traditional network boundaries, identities and data become the new control plane for enterprise security. In this world, legacy security models centred on endpoints, applications, or perimeter networks increasingly operate at the wrong layer of abstraction. Together, Symmetry Systems and Zscaler are building the information flow network for the age of AI.”
On the GSI collaboration, Chaudhry added,“GSI partners have been instrumental in driving Zero Trust driven digital transformation, delivering massive cost savings and superior user experiences for the world’s largest enterprises. With Project AI-Guardian, we are empowering our partners to extend the Zero Trust framework to AI assets including AI agents, ensuring that AI adoption does not come at the cost of security.”
Read more about the Symmetry Systems acquisition here and about Project AI-Guardian here.
About Zscaler
Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) is a pioneer and global leader in zero trust security. The world’s largest businesses, critical infrastructure organizations, and government agencies rely on Zscaler to secure users, branches, applications, data & devices, and to accelerate digital transformation initiatives. Distributed across 160+ data centers globally, the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™️ platform combined with advanced AI combats billions of cyber threats and policy violations every day and unlocks productivity gains for modern enterprises by reducing costs and complexity.
Media Contact (Not to be published)
Zscaler: Chandini Rai, Public Relations Lead, APJ, [email protected]
Zeno Group: Aditya Tiwari, [email protected]
QUOTE SHEET: Project AI-Guardian Partner Quotes
Cognizant – Vishal Salvi, Global Head of Cognizant’s Cybersecurity Service Line
“As enterprises scale AI and agentic systems, frontier AI models are identifying risks that may outpace traditional security approaches. Through Cognizant Secure AI Services, we help clients enhance trust in their AI deployments across key stages of the Agent Development Lifecycle through to AI governance. Our partnership with Zscaler extends that protection by combining Zero Trust Everywhere and AI Asset Management with our capabilities, giving clients the visibility and resilience as organization seek to turn AI into a source of competitive strength.”
EY – Dan Mellen, EY Global and US Cyber Chief Technology Officer
“AI is here now and leading organizations are taking action today; governance and security are compulsory across users, data, the network and applications. With Zscaler’s Zero Trust Everywhere and AI Asset Management, EY teams can help accelerate our clients’ visibility into their AI usage while enabling business use cases to scale responsibly.”
HCLTech – Amit Jain, EVP and Global Head, Cybersecurity, HCLTech
“As enterprises accelerate AI adoption at scale, cybersecurity teams must work in lockstep with the business to build trust and resilience into the AI ecosystem. HCLTech’s TRiBE framework for AI security and governance leverages our partnership with Zscaler to deliver end-to-end visibility into AI usage and embed policy-driven guardrails across data, identity and workloads. This enables our clients to proactively manage AI risks, strengthen cyber and operational resilience and govern AI with greater confidence.”
Infosys – Umashankar Lakshmipathy, EVP Cloud, Infrastructure, and Security
“AI adoption is accelerating rapidly, shifting security from managing tools, to governing risk at scale. Zscaler’s AI Asset Management and Zero Trust Everywhere, integrated into Infosys CyberNext platform, provide enterprises with a unified approach to AI discovery, risk governance, and continuous control enforcement turning AI security from fragmented approach into a measurable, managed outcome allowing enterprises to unlock AI value without increasing risks.”
TCS – Ganesa Subramanian Vaikuntam, VP & Global Head – Cybersecurity Business Group at TCS
“As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, the expansion of the attack surface and emergence of agentic ecosystems demand a fundamentally new approach to security and governance. By combining Zscaler’s AI security capabilities with TCS’ deep cybersecurity consulting and implementation expertise, we will enable clients to confidently harness the potential of AI while proactively mitigating evolving risks.”
Wipro – Satish Yadavalli, Global Business Head of Cloud, Infrastructure and Security Services, Wipro Limited
“AI is rapidly embedding itself across SaaS, cloud, and private application workflows often outpacing organizations’ visibility into the sensitivity of the data flows used. By combining Zscaler’s Zero Trust Everywhere and AI Asset Management with Wipro CyberTransformSM, part of the Wipro Intelligence™ suite of AI-powered platforms, solutions and transformative offerings, we enable clients to discover AI usage end-to-end, quantify enterprise risk exposure, and deploy pragmatic guardrails that protect users and data, while optimising the risk–value gap.”
