Top products for securing GenAI applications, AI agents, and LLM usage made the year-end list from both industry giants and fast-growing startups.
The surge in demand for AI and agent capabilities has dominated business discussions throughout the year and is having a profound impact on the cybersecurity space. Security vendors of all sizes are moving rapidly to expand their offerings to secure GenAI applications, AI agents, and the use of LLM. This category didn't exist just a few years ago, but it has quickly become a top priority for many organizations.
Previously, “the conversation around GenAI was how can we contain it,” Simone Gammelli, chief partnerships officer at Palo Alto Networks, said in an interview. CRN. “This year's conversation is [has been] How to enable it safely. ”
[Related: The 10 Hottest Cybersecurity Startups Of 2025]
At the same time, many top cybersecurity vendors found it a good idea to introduce next-generation capabilities for AI security through startup acquisitions this year. Major companies that did this in 2025 include Cato Networks, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, and SentinelOne.
There's no doubt that the speed of AI has changed the “build or buy” calculus for many security vendors, according to Karl Soderlund, global channel chief at Cato Networks. In September, Cato announced its first-ever M&A deal with the acquisition of Aim Security, a move that expands the SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) leader into the AI protection space. “When it comes to AI, it is evolving too rapidly. [a vendor] If you're building something, you might be missing out on that market opportunity,” Soderlund said. CRN.
for CRN's Year in Review coverage selects 10 AI security tools that are gaining traction in 2025 due to a combination of technological advancements and opportunities for channel partners.
Below (in alphabetical order) are the 10 hottest AI security tools of 2025.
Kato SASE Cloud
Cato Networks, a leading provider in the critical SASE (Secure Access Service Edge) market, is now expanding its SASE Cloud platform to provide protection for AI deployments with the acquisition of Aim Security in September.
Founded in 2022, Aim Security provides the ability to secure the use of both public and private AI applications, including AI agents. Aim also offers AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM), which provides increased visibility into AI models and applications to discover vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
For Cato Networks, “this is really a complementary extension of what we're currently doing with SASE,” said Karl Soderlund, Cato's global channel chief. “It’s still a SASE solution, but now we can also solve AI problems that are moving at lightning speed on the front end.”
CrowdStrike AI detection and response
To better protect its AI technology, CrowdStrike announced a deal to acquire GenAI guardrail startup Pangea in September. According to the company, the acquisition will enable CrowdStrike to offer the industry's first complete AI detection and response service. This means “securing AI agents from browsers, applications, gateways, and the cloud.” [and] CrowdStrike co-founder and CEO George Kurtz said this at the vendor's Fal.Con 2025 conference in September.
Meanwhile, CrowdStrike also introduced a major update to its Falcon Data Protection product in September that focuses on strengthening the security of AI data. Key features include comprehensive GenAI data protection across both local applications and cloud environments, as well as identification of hidden LLM and AI agents running on endpoints with the new Falcon Exposure Management AI Discovery feature.
Cyera AI Guardian
In August, Cyera announced a significant expansion of its data security capabilities with the launch of its AI Guardian product. Cyera said AI Guardian includes two new products that complement its existing data security products focused on DSPM (data security posture management) and DLP (data loss prevention). According to Cyera, the newly introduced products are AI-SPM, which provides a complete and detailed AI asset inventory, and AI Runtime Protection, which monitors and responds to risks associated with AI data in real-time. Alongside Cyera's existing tools for data security posture management (DSPM) and data loss prevention (DLP), AI Guardian is a “natural fit to coexist with these three products working together to provide a platform, the brains of AI,” says Cyera CRO Steve Rog. CRN.
Noma Security Platform
Founded in 2023, Noma Security provides a platform for controlling AI and agent risks, with a focus on providing continuous detection of AI assets and agents. According to the startup, the platform provides a complete AI inventory by automatically discovering where AI applications and agents are built and determining what data and systems they can access. Other key features include AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM), risk prioritization, and AI runtime protection, the company said. This year, Noma Security raised $100 million in funding and hired partner-focused executives, including former Protect AI Nick Crouch, senior director of international channels and alliances at Noma.
OpenText AI data platform
The OpenText AI Data Platform, which debuted in November, aims to provide a comprehensive foundation for AI by integrating data governance and contextual intelligence with cross-application orchestration, the company said. The AI Data Platform's architecture is aimed at enabling the ingestion of both structured and unstructured data, integrating all sources into a knowledge graph that can be used to improve the accuracy of AI decision-making, OpenText said. Importantly, the platform embeds security directly into how AI apps and agents process data, rather than offering it as a separate add-on, said Savinay Berry, executive vice president, chief product officer, and CTO at OpenText. For example, the OpenText AI data platform offers security-focused data pre-processing capabilities, such as screening for PII (personally identifiable information) within the platform itself, Berry said. CRN. “This is invaluable because you can incorporate it as part of your core product instead of trying to do it after the fact,” he said.
Orca Security AI-SPM
Orca Security, a leading provider of AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM) to increase GenAI usage and system visibility, expanded the capabilities of its service in June with a focus on protecting AI-related data. Specifically, Orca said this enhancement brings new detections to protect sensitive AI training data stored in cloud-native environments. According to the company, additional features introduced by Orca included the initiation of detection of data poisoning risks due to AI training data classified as editable or replaceable. “When it comes to AI-SPM, it provides visibility: 'What technology is being leveraged? Where is it being leveraged? In what environments and by whom?'” said Gil Geron, co-founder and CEO of Orca Security. CRN.
Palo Alto Networks: Prisma AIRS 2.0
In October, Palo Alto Networks announced Prisma AIRS 2.0, a new version of its AI security platform. This fully integrates the capabilities of Protect AI, which we acquired this year. According to Palo Alto Networks, Prisma AIRS can now provide real-time, inline protection against a variety of AI security threats, including prompt injection, malicious agents, and tool misuse. This is critical because customers are not only looking for help securing their use of third-party GenAI applications, but also ensuring the security of their own AI applications and models, according to Simone Gammelli, chief partnerships officer at Palo Alto Networks. “Prisma AIRS helps protect the entire lifecycle of GenAI applications, from the moment a model is downloaded, to the point at which it is fine-tuned, deployed, and used at runtime, to the agents that interact with or are built around that model,” Gammelli said. CRN.
SentinelOne Prompt Security Portfolio
In November, SentinelOne debuted a portfolio of AI security products, including Prompt Security for Employees, in conjunction with its recent acquisition of Prompt Security. SentinelOne says the product provides enhanced visibility into GenAI usage by employees, enables data breach prevention, and supports more than 15,000 AI services and tools. Other releases include Prompt Security for AI Code Assistants, which protects the use of coding tools powered by GenAI, and security for custom-built AI software with Prompt Security for AI Applications. Tomer Weingarten, co-founder and CEO of SentinelOne, said: “Whether it's in Agent Studio or for employee use, Prompt provides a complete umbrella to protect AI wherever it resides.” CRN. “It doesn't really matter whether it's on an endpoint in the cloud or not.” According to SentinelOne, its fourth product, Prompt Security for Agentic AI, is currently in beta and provides visibility and governance of AI agents leveraging the widely used Model Context Protocol (MCP).
With AI-SPM
In November, Wiz announced enhancements to its AI Security Posture Management (AI-SPM) service with significant expansions in coverage. The platform now covers the use of AI agents and Model Context Protocol (MCP). “This next phase of AI-SPM strengthens Wiz's end-to-end approach to AI security, spanning visibility, risk management, and governance,” the company said in a post. According to the company, key features of Wiz AI-SPM include detecting misconfigurations and high-risk data access paths between AI agents, as well as uncovering the usage of MCP technology within the environment.
Zscaler data protection
In June, Zscaler announced a series of new data protection features, including improved security when using GenAI applications. According to Zscaler, newly introduced features include enhanced visibility of prompts. Zscaler said this new feature provides greater visibility and control over Microsoft 365 Copilot and other GenAI apps. “Customers want one comprehensive solution with one set of policies that applies no matter the data channel or where the data resides, and we are there,” said Jay Chaudhry, founder and CEO of Zscaler. CRN. “That's why our data security is growing twice as fast as our overall growth rate.”
