Zscaler has launched Project AI-Guardian, an expanded collaboration with leading global system integrator partners that pairs the company’s Zero Trust Everywhere framework with GSI consulting expertise. The goal: help enterprises accelerate AI initiatives while maintaining strong data protection, regulatory compliance and full visibility.
As AI agents and autonomous workloads scale, so does the attack surface. Agentic systems act and integrate across the full lifecycle, from development to cloud runtimes, often triggering actions with delegated permissions. That mix of persistent connectivity, high privilege and opaque decision-making creates blind spots for security teams, including indirect prompt-injection paths and permission chains that stretch beyond existing controls.
“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,” said Jay Chaudhry, CEO, chairman and founder of Zscaler. “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.”
Through Project AI-Guardian, GSIs will use Zscaler’s AI Protect portfolio to build AI Discovery and Risk Mitigation functions. AI Protect covers:
- AI Asset Management: Visibility into AI usage, infrastructure and associated risks
- Secure Access to AI: Granular controls for responsible use of AI services
- Secure AI Infrastructure and Apps: Continuous red teaming and real-time guardrails for AI development
Partners will use AI Asset Management to help organizations discover shadow AI, map how data and identity connect to AI assets, and surface risks across the supply chain, security posture and sensitive data. The platform pulls insights from endpoints, inline traffic, SaaS apps, cloud services and code repositories to give organizations a full view of their AI footprint. Partners can use that intelligence to inventory AI apps, models, infrastructure, agents and usage so enterprises cut risk and move faster on AI.
Launch partners include Cognizant, EY, HCL, Infosys, TCS and Wipro.
“As enterprises scale AI and agentic systems, frontier AI models are identifying risks that move faster than conventional security can handle,” said Vishal Salvi, global head of Cognizant’s Cybersecurity Service Line. “Through Cognizant Secure AI Services, we help clients engineer provable trust into their AI deployments – from our secure 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 to turn AI into a source of competitive strength.”
