Securing The Agentic Enterprise

InnovationSecuring The Agentic EnterpriseByAnand Oswal,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)Jun 11, 2026, 09:45am EDTAnand Oswal, EVP - Products, Palo Alto Networks. getty​If the story of enterprise technology were to be told, the tale would begin placidly with mainframes and simple packet-switch networks. Minor ripples such as the shift from on-prem to cloud and the evolution to SD-WAN networks will be pivotal points of interest in the story.However, the AI transition we're in the midst of would be the technology equivalent of the Titanomachy in Greek mythology—a complete shift in the world order. AI is now becoming the digital surface itself. As organizations move beyond simple chatbots toward autonomous "compound systems" of agents (and with the evolution of frontier models such as Mythos and GPT-5), the traditional tech landscape has shifted.The Lid Is OffTo continue with the Greek myth reference, there's an often-told story of Pandora opening a storage jar. Once the lid was lifted, the challenges became part of the atmosphere itself.Today's enterprise faces a similar "Pandora moment." As we integrate AI models into our core architecture, build agents and use agentic browsers, we've lifted the lid on autonomous agency. We can't put the agents back in the jar; our task now is to govern the world they've already begun to reshape.AI is now embedded in four primary surfaces: applications, autonomous agents, IT-managed employee laptops and the browser. To navigate this shift, leaders must recognize that as AI's capabilities expand, the attack surface mutates.The Flip Side Of The AI EvolutionFor decades, application architecture was predictable. Today, the "AI stack" has introduced a complex web of models, plug-ins, vector databases and real-time i...