European technology company Thales is expanding its focus on artificial intelligence security as businesses increasingly deploy AI agents capable of making decisions and taking actions across enterprise systems. The company has announced new cybersecurity products and an expanded collaboration with Google Cloud aimed at helping organizations control and protect AI-driven workflows.
The developments were announced around the Thales Cyber Summit in Paris, where the company highlighted the rapidly changing security environment created by increasingly capable AI systems.
AI Is Changing the Cybersecurity Landscape
Artificial intelligence is being used by organizations to automate business processes, analyze data, write software and support cybersecurity operations.
At the same time, AI can also be used by attackers to accelerate certain activities and make cyber operations more scalable.
Thales CEO Patrice Caine said cybersecurity defenses need to use AI as well, arguing that defenders need technology capable of operating at the speed of increasingly automated threats.
Reuters reported that Caine called for greater investment in AI-powered cybersecurity as AI-enhanced cyberattacks become more sophisticated.
Thales and Google Cloud Expand Their Partnership
Thales and Google Cloud are expanding their collaboration to address security and governance challenges associated with agentic AI.
The partnership integrates Thales' AI Security Fabric with Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise environment.
The goal is to provide organizations with greater visibility and control over interactions between users, AI agents, models, enterprise data and connected tools.
This becomes increasingly important as companies move beyond simple AI assistants toward systems that can independently execute tasks and interact with business applications.
Why AI Agents Create New Security Challenges
Traditional software generally follows predefined instructions and workflows. AI agents can operate differently because they can reason about tasks, plan steps and interact with multiple systems.
That flexibility can create additional security risks.
An AI agent connected to sensitive company information could potentially access data, use tools or perform actions beyond what an organization intended if appropriate controls are not in place.
Thales says its AI Security Fabric is designed to provide visibility into these interactions and help organizations enforce policies around what AI systems can access and do.
Protecting Data Used by AI
Thales has also introduced a new Data Security Posture Management platform called CipherTrust Data Security Posture Management.
The system is designed to help organizations discover sensitive data, analyze risks and apply protection measures across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments.
The company says the platform can connect identified risks with protection capabilities such as encryption, masking and tokenization.
This is becoming increasingly important because AI applications and autonomous agents can require access to large amounts of corporate information.
AI-Assisted Software Attacks Are Another Concern
Thales has also launched Sentinel Envelope Plus, a software protection technology designed to defend compiled applications against AI-assisted reverse engineering and automated vulnerability discovery.
The company says the technology is intended to make it harder for automated systems to analyze protected software and identify exploitable weaknesses.
In a controlled test cited by Thales, an AI agent identified eight of ten vulnerabilities in an unprotected application. After the protection was applied, the company said the same test found none of those vulnerabilities before the analysis was stopped.
Thales describes this as a demonstration of the potential impact of AI-assisted software analysis rather than a guarantee against future attacks.
Cybersecurity Is Becoming an AI-to-AI Competition
The rapid development of AI is creating a situation in which both attackers and defenders can use increasingly automated systems.
Attackers can potentially use AI to analyze information and identify weaknesses faster, while security teams can use AI to monitor systems, prioritize threats and respond to incidents.
This creates pressure on organizations to improve their ability to detect and respond to threats quickly.
Google Cloud has also highlighted the growing role of AI in cybersecurity operations, including automated analysis and security agents that can help organizations investigate threats.
Enterprise AI Needs Stronger Controls
As businesses deploy AI agents across finance, healthcare, insurance, customer service and other industries, security requirements are becoming more complex.
An AI system operating inside an enterprise may have access to customer information, financial records, internal documents or business applications.
Security teams therefore need to understand not only which users have access to information, but also which AI agents can access it and what actions those agents are allowed to perform.
Thales' expanded Google Cloud collaboration is focused on this area by adding security and governance controls around agentic AI workflows.
The Rise of Agentic AI
Agentic AI is becoming one of the major directions in enterprise technology.
Unlike traditional chatbots that primarily respond to questions, AI agents can be connected to tools and applications that allow them to perform tasks.
Businesses are exploring these systems for software development, customer support, financial operations, data analysis and other workflows.
However, giving AI systems the ability to take action also increases the importance of authorization, monitoring and governance.
AI Security Could Become a Major Technology Market
The growing adoption of AI is creating a new market for technologies specifically designed to secure models, agents, data and AI-powered applications.
Companies are increasingly looking for ways to prevent sensitive information from being exposed, limit unauthorized AI actions and monitor automated systems.
This could make AI security one of the fastest-growing areas within enterprise cybersecurity as organizations move from AI experimentation to large-scale deployment.
Thales Pushes Toward the Next Phase of Cybersecurity
Thales' latest announcements show how cybersecurity companies are adapting to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The company is developing tools for protecting sensitive data, securing AI agents and defending software against AI-assisted analysis.
Its expanded collaboration with Google Cloud is also aimed at giving enterprises more control over AI systems operating inside their cloud environments.
The broader technology industry is now entering a phase where artificial intelligence is becoming both a potential source of new cyber risks and an important defensive technology.
As AI agents become more capable and increasingly connected to critical business systems, organizations will need to balance automation with security, governance and human oversight.
Thales' latest cybersecurity push reflects that changing environment and highlights the growing importance of protecting AI itself, rather than treating it simply as another software application.
Journalist: Vijay Singh