Establishing Control Before Deployment: Securing Existing Enterprise AI Agents

This is the third blog in a series about the Enterprise AI Lifecycle. Read the first and second blogs in the series to learn more.

When organizations enter the secure phase of the enterprise AI lifecycle, they aren’t rolling out official AI yet. But AI is already circulating throughout the business in ways leadership didn’t authorize or even know about. Employees are using public LLMs to draft content, browser extensions to automate tasks, and a mishmash of tools to work faster. 

It’s resourceful — but unmanaged. And it’s the moment risk quietly enters the enterprise. 

This step exists to contain that risk before the organization takes its first formal step into AI deployment. Without this phase, leaders end up implementing AI on top of hidden vulnerabilities and fragmented behavior that will compound over time. 

Before CIOs can consider sanctioned agents or AI-driven workflows, they need clarity on what’s already happening across the business. Most quickly discover the same story: unmanaged data flowing into public tools, overlapping subscriptions spread across departments, and workflows splintering around whichever model an employee prefers. 

This isn’t malicious use — it’s ungoverned use. And until it’s brought under control, the organization cannot build a trustworthy foundation for enterprise-grade AI. 

Secure is about stabilizing the environment so the organization doesn’t scale chaos into the next phase. CIOs need to establish visibility into all AI use, contain tool sprawl, prevent sensitive data from leaving enterprise boundaries, and ensure any AI interaction — sanctioned or not — is governed by consistent guardrails. 

This phase replaces accidental adoption with intentional oversight. It’s where the enterprise sets expectations, permissions, and protections that will later become the baseline for sanctioned AI deployments. 

This phase requires establishing governance before the first official AI workflow is ever deployed. The goal is to replace scattered, unmonitored activity with a controlled environment that leaders can trust. To do that effectively, organizations need to focus on three core outcomes:

Before risks can be mitigated, CIOs must gain insight into which tools, models, and extensions are already being used across the business. Visibility allows you to identify where sensitive data is flowing, where redundancies exist, and where unmanaged usage is creating exposure.

Once usage is uncovered, the next step is standardizing how AI is accessed. That means setting boundaries around which models can be used, what data they can interact with, and how information is handled. Least-privilege access should become the default—AI should only touch the systems and content explicitly allowed. 

Traditional security tools don’t protect against AI-specific vulnerabilities like prompt injections or contextual manipulation. Organizations must introduce protections that filter prompts and outputs for risk, prevent sensitive data from crossing enterprise boundaries, and validate actions before they’re executed. Every interaction—regardless of the model or tool—should generate an auditable trail for compliance and security teams.

Taken together, these steps transform AI from something happening in pockets of the business into something monitored, governed, and secure. By the end of the Secure phase, the organization has moved from accidental AI adoption to a structured, transparent environment that won’t unravel as official AI initiatives begin to scale. 

With governance and security in place, the organization is ready to enter being AI implementation, the phase where sanctioned agents and AI-enabled workflows can be rolled out safely and consistently. 

This phase focuses on rolling out AI intentionally — ensuring every deployment inherits the protections and practices established in Secure. 

Secure clears the risk. Implement unlocks the value. 

To learn how Airia can secure AI across your organization, book a meeting with one of our AI security experts.