CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Operant AI vs Zenity

Operant AI sells one platform covering Endpoints, Agents, MCPs, and AI applications. Zenity sells an AI agent security platform built to govern how agents behave, not just what they say or generate. 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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  • Operant AI
  • Zenity
Operant AI vs Zenity: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Operant AIOperant AI sells one platform covering Endpoints, Agents, MCPs, and AI applications.operant.aiZenityZenity sells an AI agent security platform built to govern how agents behave, not just what they say or generate.zenity.io
What it sells
  • Operant Semantic Firewall[1][7]Understands the intent behind every agent action and enforces an allow, block, or redact decision inline, in real time.
  • Agent Protector[1][5][6]Inventories all AI agents operating within an organization's infrastructure.
  • AI Observability[5]Builds a live inventory of every agent across an organization's environment and tracks the data those agents access.
  • AI Security Posture Management (AISPM)[7]Evaluates configuration, permissions, and integrations before an agent goes live.
  • Boundaries[4][6][8]Evaluates every agent action in real time against an organization's rules and decides to let it through, block it, or shut the agent down.
  • AI Detection and Response (AIDR)[9]AIDR reads the full sequence of an agent's activity, detecting threats mapped to the OWASP LLM and MITRE ATLAS frameworks.
  • Zenity Security Assessment Hub[13]A set of 10 free, open-source tools built by Zenity Labs to help security teams identify and understand immediate risks.
Categories
Headquarters
San Francisco, United States[2]Not stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pages2021[2]
Ownership and funding
Privately held[1][3]Privately held[3][6][17]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • May 4, 2026Operant AI launched Operant Endpoint Protector, a new addition to its AI Defense Platform for discovering and defending against threats across AI tools and coding agents.[4]
  • September 23, 2026Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.[15]
  • August 3, 2026Zenity announced a $125 million Series C round led by Norwest.[14]
  • June 17, 2026Zenity and Carahsoft announced a partnership under which Carahsoft serves as Zenity's Public Sector distributor.[17]
  • March 17, 2026Zenity announced general availability of runtime security controls for AI agents built on Microsoft Foundry.[16]
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
It describes plans for teams putting their first production AI into customers' hands and for companies running AI across teams and products with critical data and compliance requirements. Its pages say regulated and government deployments mostly use the VPC, on-premise, or air-gapped options on the Enterprise plan. Workloads it covers range from coding agents on employee laptops to cloud agents across any infra.Zenity describes a global financial services firm and a global asset manager as organizations that write policy rules for agents. Zenity covers agents embedded in SaaS tools, home-grown agentic platforms in the cloud, and end-user devices. Zenity gives security and platform teams a single place to surface, enforce, and protect MCP usage.
Last verified
September 27, 2026November 9, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Operant AI and Zenity are both filed under AI model and agent security.
  • Both are privately held.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Operant AI's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails; Zenity's is AI model and agent security.
  • Zenity is also filed under AI governance.
  • Operant AI lists Operant Semantic Firewall and Agent Protector. Zenity lists AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
  • Operant AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
  • Zenity was founded in 2021.

What it sells: Operant AI

What Operant Semantic Firewall does[1][7]
Operant Semantic Firewall holds an agent to its assigned purpose across the whole session, catching drift from manipulation or its own initiative. Operant can redact the sensitive part of an action and let the agent keep working within scope, instead of killing the workflow.
What Agent Protector does[1][5][6]
Agent Protector covers managed agents deployed through official channels and unmanaged agents running in cloud environments, SaaS platforms, and development tools. Agent Protector analyzes agent behavior patterns to identify and prevent security threats before they execute.

What it sells: Zenity

What AI Observability does[5]
AI Observability is Zenity's discovery and visibility layer for AI agents. Data Lens surfaces sensitive files and pages that are both frequently accessed and broadly exposed across agents.
What AI Security Posture Management (AISPM) does[7]
AISPM evaluates configuration and permissions for agents embedded in platforms like Microsoft Copilot Studio, ChatGPT Enterprise, and Salesforce Agentforce. AISPM applies stricter enforcement in production and more flexible policy in development or sandbox environments.
What Boundaries does[4][6][8]
Boundaries is Zenity's runtime enforcement engine. A rule written once in Boundaries is enforced on Copilot, ChatGPT Enterprise, Agentforce, Bedrock, coding agents, and homegrown builds. Boundaries includes a built-in AI assistant that turns a plain-language request into a working rule.
What AI Detection and Response (AIDR) does[9]
AI Detection and Response (AIDR) is Zenity's runtime security layer for AI agents. AIDR detects direct and indirect prompt injection and blocks execution before the agent acts on them. AIDR breaks every agent interaction into individual steps and groups them by thread in a single activity table.
What Zenity Security Assessment Hub does[13]
The Zenity Security Assessment Hub is built by Zenity Labs. The tools take a Red-Team approach to visualize threats across Microsoft 365, with a focus on 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and Power Platform.

Questions about Operant AI and Zenity

What do Operant AI and Zenity sell?
Operant AI sells Operant Semantic Firewall and Agent Protector. Zenity sells AI Observability, AI Security Posture Management (AISPM), Boundaries, AI Detection and Response (AIDR) and Zenity Security Assessment Hub.
Are Operant AI and Zenity in the same category?
They share AI model and agent security. Operant AI's primary category is AI firewalls and guardrails and Zenity's is AI model and agent security.
Where are Operant AI and Zenity headquartered?
Operant AI is headquartered in San Francisco, United States.
When were Operant AI and Zenity founded?
Zenity was founded in 2021.
Who owns Operant AI and Zenity?
Operant AI is privately held. Zenity is privately held.
Who are Operant AI and Zenity sold to?
It describes plans for teams putting their first production AI into customers' hands and for companies running AI across teams and products with critical data and compliance requirements. Zenity describes a global financial services firm and a global asset manager as organizations that write policy rules for agents.
What have Operant AI and Zenity announced recently?
May 4, 2026: Operant AI launched Operant Endpoint Protector, a new addition to its AI Defense Platform for discovering and defending against threats across AI tools and coding agents. September 23, 2026: Zenity was named a Market Shaper in Gartner's inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application Security.

About Operant AI

Operant AI sells one platform covering Endpoints, Agents, MCPs, and AI applications. Operant AI describes its platform as discovering, detecting, and defending all AI, agents, and MCP in real time. Operant AI says many customers start with Endpoint Protector or Agent Protector and add MCP Gateway and AI Gatekeeper as their AI footprint expands. Operant AI says all plans include the full Operant platform and differ in depth, deployment options, and the level of partnership.[5]

Endpoint Protector enforces AI trust boundaries on the laptop. Endpoint Protector discovers Shadow AI tools, coding agents, and MCP clients on employee devices. Endpoint Protector monitors agent loops and blocks prompt injection, data exfiltration, and malicious shell execution directly on the device. Operant AI's endpoint coverage provides governance and runtime detection for coding and coworking agents running on employee endpoints.[5]

Agent Protector inventories all AI agents operating within an organization's infrastructure. Agent Protector covers managed agents deployed through official channels and unmanaged agents running in cloud environments, SaaS platforms, and development tools. Agent Protector blocks the action inline when an agent attempts to access resources outside its established patterns, escalate privileges, or exhibit signs of data exfiltration. Agent Protector analyzes agent behavior patterns to identify and prevent security threats before they execute. Agent Protector monitors behavior, detects threats, and blocks attacks from zero-click exploits to data exfiltration and rogue agents. Operant AI's cloud agent coverage provides runtime security for homegrown and cloud-native agents, with support for AWS and Azure.[5][6]

Operant Semantic Firewall understands the intent behind every agent action and enforces an allow, block, or redact decision inline, in real time. Operant AI reads the meaning of every prompt, plan, tool call, command, and data payload before it executes. Operant Semantic Firewall holds an agent to its assigned purpose across the whole session, catching drift from manipulation or its own initiative. Operant Semantic Firewall enforces access by data sensitivity, honoring the classification labels governance tools already set. Operant AI can redact the sensitive part of an action and let the agent keep working within scope, instead of killing the workflow.[7]

Operant AI provides visibility and controls for every MCP server, client, tool, and connection in an environment, with MCP registries, white list and black lists, and NHI access controls. Operant AI catalogs MCP tools and discovers AI agents in real time across all environments. Operant AI detects prompt injections, jailbreaks, tool poisoning, and unauthorized access patterns across all MCP client and server interactions in real time. Operant AI implements MCP trust zones with real-time blocking of untrusted servers and tools. Operant AI prevents leaks of sensitive data and intellectual property through flow blocking and automatic redaction. Operant AI enforces least privilege execution controls and detailed access permissions for MCP tool usage.[8]

AI Gatekeeper detects and blocks unauthenticated and unauthorized AI behavior in real time. Operant AI's AI application coverage is an LLM gateway with native firewall, offering multi-provider routing, request inspection, and traffic security for every AI application. Operant AI's 3D Runtime Defense provides real-time security across every cluster and every cloud, from infra to APIs. Operant AI detects and prioritizes AI-specific risks such as prompt injection, LLM poisoning, model theft, and sensitive data leakage. Operant AI applies in-line auto-redaction and obfuscation of sensitive and PII data.[5][9][10]

Operant API & Cloud Protector catches and blocks malicious traffic at ingress and egress. Operant AI protects internal and third party API interactions with K8s-native controls for protocol specific authentication, authorization, traffic rate limiting, and API to API microsegmentation. Woodpecker provides flexible and extensible red teaming frameworks for K8s, APIs, and AI models and agents, and enables multi-layer threat simulation across runtime, APIs, and LLM integrations. Woodpecker covers prompt injection, jailbreaks, model theft, sensitive data leakage, and more.[11][12]

Operant AI describes deployment as a single step helm install with zero instrumentation and zero integrations. Operant starts in observe-only mode by default, and customers decide when and where to enable enforcement. Operant AI offers VPC, on-premise, and air-gapped deployments on the Enterprise plan. Operant AI says pricing scales with the breadth and depth of its customers' AI surface, including endpoints under management, agents in production, and the governance needed across MCPs and AI applications. Operant AI supports workloads from coding agents on employee laptops to cloud agents across any infra, including LLM apps, AI agents, MCP servers, microservices, APIs, and traditional environments. Operant AI covers SaaS agents including Glean, Salesforce Agentforce, and Microsoft Copilot.[5][9][11][12][13][14]

Operant AI on the record

Sources

Operant AI full record

  1. [1]Operant AI - Secure Your AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Operant ai launches agent protector the first real time agentic security solution enabling safe ai agent innovation at scaleOperant AI via GlobeNewswire · globenewswire.com · published February 5, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Operant ai secures 10m series a to protect the modern cloud across apis applications and aiOperant AI via GlobeNewswire · globenewswire.com · published September 12, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]Operant AI Endpoint Protector secures AI agents and MCP toolsHelp Net Security · published May 4, 2026 · Tier B
  5. [5]Pricing - AI & Agent Security Platform | Operant AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Agent Protector: Real-Time AI Agent Security | OperantOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Operant Semantic Firewall | Govern AI Agents in Real TimeOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Operant MCP GatewayOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI GatekeeperOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]AI Application SecurityOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]API & Cloud Protector | Real-Time API Security | Operant AIOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Woodpecker: Open Source Red Teaming for AI, APIs & K8sOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]FAQsOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Start Your Free 7-Day Trial | Operant AI Security PlatformOperant AI · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A

Zenity full record

  1. [1]AI Agent Security and Governance | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Zenity announces strategic investment led by m12Zenity · zenity.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Zenity raises 38m series b funding round to secure agentic aiZenity · zenity.io · published October 29, 2024 · Tier A
  4. [4]AI Agent Security & Governance Platform for the Enterprise | ZenityZenity · undated page, accessed October 30, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]AI Observability | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]AI Agent Security | Model Context Protocol (MCP) | ZenityZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]AI Security Posture Management | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Runtime Boundaries | Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]AI Detection and Response (AIDRZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Agentic Identity & Access Management: Zenity AI Security PlatformZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Securing Financial Services AI | Zenity, Microsoft & SlalomZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Company | Zenity | Secure AI Agents EverywhereZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Zenity Security Assessment Hub | Zenity | Secure AI Agents EverywhereZenity · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Zenity Raises $125 Million to Secure the Era of 1 Billion AI AgentsZenity · published August 3, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Zenity Named a Market Shaper in Gartner’s Inaugural Emerging Market Quadrant for AI Application SecurityZenity · published September 23, 2026 · Tier A
  16. [16]Zenity Announces Availability of Inline Agent Runtime Security for Agents Built on Microsoft FoundryZenity · published March 17, 2026 · Tier A
  17. [17]Zenity and Carahsoft Bring AI Agent Security and Governance to Federal, State and Local AgenciesZenity · published June 17, 2026 · Tier A

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