San Jose, California, January 2026: Zscaler, a global leader in cloud security and zero trust solutions, has appointed Swamy Kocherlakota to head its newly established Agentic AI Security Engineering division. This strategic appointment underscores Zscaler’s commitment to strengthening its AI-driven cybersecurity capabilities as enterprises increasingly adopt autonomous and agentic AI systems across their digital ecosystems.
Strengthening AI-Driven Cybersecurity
The newly created division — Agentic AI Security Engineering — will focus on building advanced security frameworks that can safeguard autonomous AI agents, LLM-powered workflows, and AI-driven enterprise infrastructure.
Zscaler aims to lead the next wave of AI-native cybersecurity innovation, integrating intelligent, adaptive threat protection directly into its Zero Trust Exchange platform.
“The evolution of AI is transforming enterprise technology, but it also introduces new security challenges,” said Jay Chaudhry, Founder and CEO of Zscaler. “Swamy’s expertise in large-scale digital transformation and secure cloud architectures will be invaluable as we strengthen our AI security foundation for the agentic era.”
About Swamy Kocherlakota
Swamy Kocherlakota is a veteran technology leader with over two decades of experience across financial services, cybersecurity, and enterprise cloud platforms. Before joining Zscaler, he served as Chief Information Officer at S&P Global, where he led the company’s digital transformation and implemented modern security frameworks at scale.
He has also held senior roles at Visa, Bank of America, and Citi, where he managed complex technology ecosystems and large engineering teams.
At Zscaler, Kocherlakota will be responsible for:
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Engineering AI-native security solutions to protect agentic and autonomous systems
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Integrating adaptive AI models into Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange
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Leading global AI and cloud security innovation programs
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Expanding the company’s research partnerships with universities and AI labs
“AI agents are already transforming how enterprises operate,” said Swamy Kocherlakota, VP and Head of Agentic AI Security Engineering at Zscaler. “Our mission is to make this transformation secure, responsible, and resilient. We’re building the guardrails that will allow organizations to safely deploy autonomous systems at scale.”
Zscaler’s AI Vision: Securing the Agentic Future
Zscaler’s move comes at a pivotal time when AI-powered systems — including autonomous workflows, decision-making bots, and self-learning agents — are becoming integral to business operations.
However, this paradigm shift also exposes enterprises to new classes of cyber risks, such as:
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AI model manipulation and prompt injection
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Data poisoning attacks targeting AI training pipelines
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Unauthorized AI agent behavior in networked environments
Through its Agentic AI Security Engineering division, Zscaler plans to build AI defense systems that continuously monitor, evaluate, and secure AI agent interactions in real time.
The initiative aligns with Zscaler’s broader strategy to embed AI-driven intelligence and automation across its cloud security portfolio — spanning data protection, identity access management, and secure edge computing.
AI Meets Zero Trust: The Next Chapter in Cybersecurity
Zscaler has been at the forefront of the Zero Trust movement, helping global enterprises move away from traditional network perimeter defenses toward dynamic, identity-based security.
With the integration of Agentic AI, Zscaler is taking a significant step forward — positioning itself as the first major cybersecurity company to design Zero Trust principles around AI agents and autonomous systems.
This next-generation framework will ensure that AI models, digital twins, and intelligent automation tools adhere to security and compliance standards as they interact within enterprise environments.
“The future of security is proactive, intelligent, and autonomous,” Kocherlakota added. “We’re developing a security layer that evolves with AI — not against it.”
Industry Impact and Future Outlook
The appointment of Swamy Kocherlakota is a clear signal that AI security engineering will become a key differentiator in the enterprise cybersecurity market.
Analysts view this as part of a broader trend where AI safety and observability are emerging as mission-critical components of corporate technology infrastructure.
With organizations rapidly adopting LLM-based assistants, digital agents, and AI-driven workflows, the need for robust agentic security frameworks has become more urgent than ever.
Zscaler’s investment in this area positions it alongside other tech giants such as Microsoft, OpenAI, and Google DeepMind, which are also exploring the intersection of AI and cybersecurity.
About Zscaler
Founded in 2007 by Jay Chaudhry, Zscaler (NASDAQ: ZS) is a global leader in cloud-native security solutions, protecting over 7,000 enterprises and 40% of the Fortune 500.
Its flagship product, Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange, secures users, applications, and devices regardless of location, delivering a seamless and scalable security experience for hybrid and cloud-first organizations.
With the launch of Agentic AI Security Engineering, Zscaler continues to redefine enterprise security for the AI-powered future, combining data protection, intelligence, and automation under one unified platform.
Ruchi Kumar is the associate editor at Entrepreneur News Network and TVW News India, where she leads editorial strategy, brand storytelling, and startup ecosystem coverage. With a strong focus on innovation, business, and marketing insights, he curates impactful narratives that spotlight India’s evolving entrepreneurial landscape.