Why governance has to start before an incident
Agents have identities, permissions, tools, objectives, credentials, context and the ability to act. If the first time you look at what an agent could access is after something goes wrong, governance has already failed.
A five-part AI agent governance framework
- Inventory: know which agents and connected applications exist
- Ownership: every agent has a named human or team accountable for it
- Approval and least privilege: agents receive only the access their task requires
- Oversight: activity is monitored and changes in behavior are reviewed
- Evidence: decisions and activity are recorded for security, compliance and audit
Policies to write down
- Who may connect an AI agent to company systems, and what approval it needs
- Which data categories agents may never access
- Which permission scopes require security sign-off
- How long agent activity records are retained
- What happens when an agent has no owner or its owner leaves
Where software fits
Policies alone do not tell you whether they are being followed. Governance software provides the visibility layer: discovering agents, showing their permissions, recording activity and surfacing risk so that the policy can be enforced and evidenced.
How AgentGuard supports agent governance
AgentGuard gives security and compliance teams an independent layer for AI agent governance, audit logging and continuous oversight, starting with Google Workspace. GitHub, Microsoft 365 and Slack are coming next.
Frequently asked questions
What is agentic AI governance?
The policies and controls that govern autonomous AI agents: which may operate, what they may access, who is accountable and how their activity is reviewed.
Who should own AI agent governance?
Typically security, with compliance and audit as reviewers and each agent assigned a business owner. The key is that ownership is explicit.
Do we need a separate tool for agent governance?
You need visibility into agents that your existing identity and logging tools were not designed to provide. An independent layer makes that visibility consistent across systems.
Does AgentGuard enforce policies automatically?
AgentGuard focuses on visibility, risk detection and evidence so your team can make and document decisions.