Gartner: Guardian Agents to Capture Up to 15% of Agentic AI Market by 2030

Technology

Gartner: Guardian Agents to Capture Up to 15% of Agentic AI Market by 2030

Guardian agents—AI-powered systems designed to enforce trust and security within AI environments—are set to become a cornerstone of the agentic AI ecosystem, capturing 10% to 15% of the market by 2030, according to global research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.

As the use of autonomous AI agents accelerates, Gartner predicts that guardian agents will play a critical role in monitoring, managing, and securing these systems. Their dual capabilities as task-supporting assistants and autonomous protectors are expected to safeguard AI interactions, preventing unintended outcomes, misuse, or malicious manipulation.

“Agentic AI will lead to unwanted outcomes if it is not controlled with the right guardrails,” said Avivah Litan, VP Distinguished Analyst at Gartner. “Guardian agents provide these guardrails—leveraging AI capabilities and deterministic evaluations to balance runtime decision-making with risk management.”

Rise of Guardian Agents Amid Growing AI Risk Surface

According to a May 2025 Gartner webinar poll of 147 CIOs and IT leaders:

24% had already deployed a few AI agents,
4% had deployed more than a dozen,
50% were still in the research and experimentation phase,
17% planned deployment by the end of 2026.

This growing interest signals a shift toward automated trust, risk, and security controls, which are essential as AI agents grow more powerful and pervasive.

With 70% of AI applications expected to use multi-agent systems by 2028, the need for automated monitoring and governance tools is growing exponentially.

Mitigating Threats with Guardian Agents

Gartner warns of several threat categories that could undermine agentic AI operations, including:

Credential hijacking and data breaches,
Input manipulation and data poisoning, where agents act on false data,
Unintended behavior due to internal flaws or malicious triggers.

As enterprises deploy AI agents across internal departments such as IT, HR, and accounting—and increasingly in customer-facing roles, the complexity and risk increase.

“The rapid growth of AI agency demands more than traditional human oversight,” Litan explained. “Guardian agents are essential to controlling this expanding threat landscape, especially as multi-agent systems evolve beyond what humans can manage in real-time.”

Three Critical Roles of Guardian Agents

Gartner identifies three key functional categories for guardian agents:

Reviewers – Evaluate AI-generated content for accuracy, bias, or harmful outputs.
Monitors – Track AI activity to flag anomalies and guide human or AI-led responses.
Protectors – Take real-time automated actions to adjust or block risky AI behavior.

These agents operate across AI systems to intervene automatically, offering scalable oversight regardless of the AI usage type.

A Strategic Imperative for CIOs and Security Leaders

With enterprises increasingly integrating autonomous AI solutions, guardian agents offer a path forward to ensure safety, reliability, and compliance. Gartner encourages CIOs and AI security professionals to begin deploying or experimenting with guardian agent models, particularly as part of a broader AI governance strategy.

Gartner clients can access detailed guidance in the report, Guardians of the Future: How CIOs Can Leverage Guardian Agents for Trustworthy and Secure AI. A complimentary Gartner webinar titled CIOs, Leverage Guardian Agents for Trustworthy and Secure AI is also available for further insights.