CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

HiddenLayer vs Holistic AI

HiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build. Holistic AI sells an enterprise AI governance platform that lets customers discover every model, agent and application, assess AI risk and enforce policies. CISO Tribune files both under AI model and agent security. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • HiddenLayer
  • Holistic AI
HiddenLayer vs Holistic AI: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
HiddenLayerHiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build.hiddenlayer.comHolistic AIHolistic AI sells an enterprise AI governance platform that lets customers discover every model, agent and application, assess AI risk and enforce policies.holisticai.com
What it sells
  • Model Scanning[1][4][6]Scans third-party and proprietary machine learning models to detect hidden risks.
  • Red Teaming[1][6][10]Runs continuous testing intended to identify threats early and validate AI defenses.
  • AI Guardrails[1][11]Applies policy-based controls intended to prevent misuse, data leakage and adversarial attacks on AI systems.
  • Agentic and MCP Protection[1][4][5][6]Monitors autonomous AI agents and MCP connections and is intended to guard against rogue behavior.
  • Sentinel Agents[4]Continuously monitor what a customer's AI says in production.
  • Operative Agents[4]Step in inline when risk crosses a defined threshold.
Categories
Headquarters
Austin, United States[2]San Francisco, United States[2]
Founded
2022[2]2020[3]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[3]Privately held[4]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 12, 2026HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer.[14]
Not stated on its pages
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. HiddenLayer offers protection of agentic, generative, and predictive AI systems for mission assurance. HiddenLayer describes deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations.From its own pages, Holistic AI sells mainly to enterprises that deploy AI at scale, including LLMs, generative AI and agents. Its pages address teams responsible for AI risk, with Security, Legal and Boards named as the audiences for compliance proof. The platform connects to cloud, code and SaaS environments through read-only integrations.
Last verified
November 2, 2026September 27, 2026

Where they overlap

  • HiddenLayer and Holistic AI are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are headquartered in the United States.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • HiddenLayer's primary category is AI model and agent security; Holistic AI's is AI governance.
  • HiddenLayer is also filed under AI firewalls and guardrails.
  • HiddenLayer lists Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection. Holistic AI lists Sentinel Agents and Operative Agents.
  • HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States. Holistic AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
  • HiddenLayer was founded in 2022. Holistic AI was founded in 2020.

What it sells: Holistic AI

What Sentinel Agents does[4]
The platform page says Sentinel Agents continuously monitor what AI says in production. The risks named are prompt injection, jailbreaks, data leakage, hallucination and toxicity. The page says they work without interrupting workflows.
What Operative Agents does[4]
The platform page says that when risk crosses a defined threshold, Operative Agents step in inline. They govern which tools the AI calls, what it can access and how much it can spend, in real time.

Questions about HiddenLayer and Holistic AI

What do HiddenLayer and Holistic AI sell?
HiddenLayer sells Model Scanning, Red Teaming, AI Guardrails and Agentic and MCP Protection. Holistic AI sells Sentinel Agents and Operative Agents.
Are HiddenLayer and Holistic AI in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. HiddenLayer's primary category is AI model and agent security and Holistic AI's is AI governance.
Where are HiddenLayer and Holistic AI headquartered?
HiddenLayer is headquartered in Austin, United States. Holistic AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
When were HiddenLayer and Holistic AI founded?
HiddenLayer was founded in 2022. Holistic AI was founded in 2020.
Who owns HiddenLayer and Holistic AI?
HiddenLayer is privately held. Holistic AI is privately held.
Who are HiddenLayer and Holistic AI sold to?
HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. From its own pages, Holistic AI sells mainly to enterprises that deploy AI at scale, including LLMs, generative AI and agents.
What have HiddenLayer and Holistic AI announced recently?
August 12, 2026: HiddenLayer announced the appointment of Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue Officer.

About HiddenLayer

HiddenLayer sells AI security that analyzes AI applications, models, and assets, identifies their risks, and protects them as teams build. HiddenLayer builds an inventory of the AI applications, models, and assets in a customer environment. HiddenLayer offers a firewall that monitors, detects, and responds in real time to adversarial threats on agentic and generative AI applications. HiddenLayer continually identifies threats and validates defenses for agentic and generative AI applications.[1]

HiddenLayer says developers are embedding AI into tools and workflows faster than security teams can track. HiddenLayer says third-party models introduce unknown code and vulnerabilities. HiddenLayer says coding agents can read sensitive files, execute shell commands, install dependencies, or expose credentials. HiddenLayer says attackers can manipulate AI systems through prompts, retrieved content, tool output, or other untrusted inputs.[1][4][5]

HiddenLayer automatically builds a living inventory of AI across an environment, including shadow AI. HiddenLayer scans cloud accounts, repos, endpoints, and pipelines to detect every model and associated agent. HiddenLayer scans AWS, Azure, GCP, VMs, containers, and APIs for AI assets. HiddenLayer automatically associates AI assets with owners, business units, sensitivity, and risk levels. HiddenLayer aligns AI assets with NIST, OWASP, and ATLAS frameworks.[6][7]

HiddenLayer analyzes models for malware, vulnerabilities, backdoors, and unknown components before they reach production. HiddenLayer scans model files and URLs for malware, CVEs, backdoors, and integrity issues before deployment. HiddenLayer analyzes architectures, layers, weights, and artifacts for tampering or anomalies. HiddenLayer tests commercial models for safety and security before integration. HiddenLayer identifies where models come from, including origin and licensing.[4][6][7][8]

HiddenLayer continuously tests AI systems against evolving attacks and uncovers weaknesses early. HiddenLayer tests for jailbreaks, injection, role confusion, and harmful response patterns. HiddenLayer probes for extraction of PHI, PII, or proprietary data. HiddenLayer simulates unauthorized actions through agent tools and APIs.[6][9][10]

HiddenLayer detects and responds to AI attacks in production. HiddenLayer monitors prompts, outputs, memory, and agent actions in real time to detect and block prompt injection, data leakage, model theft, and unsafe tool use. HiddenLayer observes and reconstructs agent interactions across tools, data, and workflows in real time. HiddenLayer detects, blocks, or redacts unsafe actions and sensitive information according to policy and platform capabilities. HiddenLayer integrates runtime detections and enforcement events with existing SIEM, SOAR, and security operations workflows. HiddenLayer extends Runtime Security into AI coding agents through lightweight, on-device integration.[5][6][10]

HiddenLayer enforces boundaries around content, toxicity, bias, and regulatory restrictions. HiddenLayer detects and prevents PII, PHI, and proprietary data exposure in generated content. HiddenLayer enforces safe, compliant, and policy aligned AI behavior across applications, models, and business units. HiddenLayer combines safety guardrails with real time threat detection and prompt injection blocking. HiddenLayer protects autonomous agents and MCP based systems from prompt injection, unsafe tool use, and harmful autonomous actions.[1][6][11]

HiddenLayer says its platform deploys across any architecture without exposing intellectual property, weights, prompts, or customer data. HiddenLayer offers deployment through APIs, gateways, SDKs, or lightweight on-device integrations. HiddenLayer offers services modeled after active adversarial campaigns targeting enterprise AI applications. HiddenLayer services evaluate every layer from AI asset discovery to data and model supply chains to runtime environments. HiddenLayer services provide detailed remediation playbooks tailored to models, infrastructure, and compliance needs. HiddenLayer services work in concert with the HiddenLayer AI Security Platform for ongoing protection. HiddenLayer services align with emerging AI governance standards, including NIST AI RMF and EU AI Act requirements.[4][6][12]

HiddenLayer describes securing AI used for fraud detection, trading, compliance, and customer engagement. HiddenLayer describes establishing governance controls aligned with FFIEC and OCC frameworks. HiddenLayer detects malware, tampered artifacts, and backdoored weights in pretrained models and libraries. HiddenLayer protects agentic, generative, and predictive AI systems for mission assurance.[1][4][6][10][13]

HiddenLayer on the record

Sources

HiddenLayer full record

  1. [1]HiddenLayer | Total AI SecurityHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Hiddenlayer launches the first security solution to protect ai powered products 301587864HiddenLayer via PR Newswire · prnewswire.com · published July 19, 2022 · Tier A
  3. [3]Hiddenlayer 100m series b ai securityHiddenLayer · hiddenlayer.com · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Application Developers | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Runtime Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Platform | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Discovery | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]AI Supply Chain Security | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Attack Simulation | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]CISO | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]AI Guardrails | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Financial Services | HiddenLayerHiddenLayer · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]HiddenLayer Appoints Mike Gesnaldo as Chief Revenue OfficerHiddenLayer · published August 12, 2026 · Tier A

Holistic AI full record

  1. [1]Holistic AI – The Leading AI Governance PlatformHolistic AI · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]About Holistic AI- The Leading AI Governance PlatformHolistic AI · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Holistic AI Launches Open Source Library to Advance Responsible AIHolistic AI via Business Wire · businesswire.com · published October 22, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]An End to End AI Governance Platform - Holistic AIHolistic AI · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Digital Services Act ComplianceHolistic AI · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Seamless Integrations for Enterprise AI Governance - Holistic AIHolistic AI · undated page, accessed October 25, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Holistic AI named a Challenger in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI Governance PlatformsHolistic AI · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Customer Success Stories | Holistic AIHolistic AI · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Trust Center - Holistic AIHolistic AI · undated page, accessed November 5, 2026 · Tier A

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