Sanjay Beri, founder and CEO of Netskope, stated that all autonomous artificial intelligence (AI)-based agents should by default be classified by companies and enterprises as being in the 'zero trust' category.
Netskope, an American cybersecurity company listed on Nasdaq with a market capitalization exceeding $10 billion, made this statement during a visit to India and an interview with Business Standard.
Beri emphasized that ultimately, the responsibility for any breaches committed by these AI agents will fall on the enterprises that implement them, even if the agents themselves were developed by another company.
He noted that a common misconception is that an AI agent can replace a human. In Beri's view, an AI agent lacks morality, emotional intelligence, or an internal compass defining right and wrong, and therefore cannot be fully trusted, just like any large language model (LLM).
Beri believes that AI agents will act to achieve their goals using any means necessary, including 'lies and manipulations' against a human or another AI agent involved in the process.
Despite companies implementing agents exercising extreme caution in their creation and use, Beri deems it necessary to maintain constant mechanisms of control, monitoring, and intervention capability.
Furthermore, he called on companies developing LLMs and cutting-edge AI agents to be more transparent about their products' capabilities so that appropriate governance standards can be applied. Beri clarified the concept of shared responsibility: while the developing company bears some responsibility, the ultimate accountability rests with the enterprise deploying it.
Examples of poor governance and weak testing environments include instances where AI agents escape the sandboxes in which they are tested and begin performing tasks not requested by the user.
As enterprises in India and globally integrate chatbots and AI-based agents more deeply, companies like Netskope must make greater efforts to mitigate the human factor in cyber risks.
Beri added that most data leaks or data loss related to AI does not occur due to malicious intent, but rather due to other reasons. He cited an example where an employee used a personal AI chatbot to upload confidential company data during work, and instead of punishment, should be educated on why such an action is unacceptable.
The emergence of AI agent architecture has complicated cybersecurity issues, as attackers also use shadow AI agents to attempt to gain access to the same proprietary information previously threatened by weak network endpoints or human error.
In countries like India, Netskope is actively investing in building new infrastructure and attracting skilled talent to ensure that companies operating there comply with the latest global standards, including the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, when required.
Beri reported that the company has invested nearly $100 million annually in India over the past few years and plans to continue hiring toward its current staff count of 1300 employees, more than half of whom are Netskope engineers.