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Akto Achieves Recognition in the Gartner Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security

In an impressive stride within the realm of artificial intelligence security, Akto has been acknowledged as a Pioneer in the 2026 Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant dedicated to AI application security. This accolade positions Akto as a leading force among startup vendors specializing in safeguarding AI applications.

The Gartner® report outlines that the AI application security market encompasses a range of technologies tailored to protect enterprise-developed AI applications and agents. Central to this protective framework are functionalities that include security testing, exposure management, and runtime defense, which help in promptly detecting, alerting, or blocking potential threats. Such solutions can be deployed via SaaS or on-premises technologies, enabling cybersecurity and risk management teams to maintain a robust security posture, conduct adversarial testing, and ensure the real-time protection of AI applications.

Gartner identifies three fundamental capabilities that define the AI application security market: automated AI discovery and inventory, automated AI security testing, and AI runtime defense. Akto’s recognition as a Pioneer underscores its uniquely advanced architectural approaches through the entire life cycle of agentic AI applications, covering aspects from AI discovery and security management to automated security testing and overseeing account actions.

The emergence of this dedicated AI security quadrant by Gartner underscores the rapid growth of the market and escalating demand from enterprises for reliable security solutions, particularly following notable incidents involving major players in the AI field. Recent events, such as OpenAI and Hugging Face facing security challenges, and a Google Gemini agent inadvertently compromising real-world environments, have undeniably highlighted the urgent need for enhanced AI security measures.

Ankita Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Akto, expressed pride in the acknowledgment, stating, "Enterprises encounter security challenges both in safely integrating AI into their workflows and in securely developing AI applications for their customers. Unfortunately, many organizations find themselves lacking the requisite visibility and control to navigate these challenges confidently. Akto aims to address the entirety of this complex issue through its flagship products, Atlas and Argus."

Fortune 1000 companies trust Akto's security control platform to safely discover, assess, govern, and protect AI across their various environments. The company asserts that AI security extends beyond a single control point; it is a continuous loop. This vital process enables the discovery of active AI, testing, enforcing policies during runtime, tracing occurrences, and feeding this contextual information back into governance protocols.

Akto's two primary products encapsulate this philosophy. Akto Atlas is dedicated to the governance of employee AI usage, enabling security teams to identify the AI applications, agents, MCP servers, skills, and plugins utilized across their workforce while imposing runtime controls on these interactions. On the other hand, Akto Argus focuses on securing internally developed AI applications and agents by offering AI red teaming, runtime guardrails, AI security gateways, and comprehensive visibility into agent activities.

The recognition from Gartner not only positions Akto as a pioneering vendor in AI security but also builds upon its prior acknowledgments in various sectors of AI protection. In 2026, the company was also distinguished as a Sample Vendor for AI Security Testing and AI Runtime Defense across multiple Gartner Hype Cycles. Moreover, their inclusion as a Representative Vendor in the 2025 guide on securing AI agents further emphasizes their leading position in the industry.

Today, Fortune 1000 organizations rely on Akto to confidently and securely embrace AI solutions across their operations, ensuring AI development and deployment is conducted with the highest level of safety and integrity.

For more information on Akto's transformative contributions to AI security, visit their official site at www.akto.io.