Zscaler Conference: AI Agents, Agentic SOC Fuel Zero-Trust Growth Ambitions

Key Points

• Zscaler is adapting its zero-trust platform for AI agents, using proxy-based inspection to understand multi-turn AI interactions, prevent data leakage and detect threats such as model poisoning or unintended actions.
• The company launched an Agentic SOC that uses dozens of specialized agents to detect, investigate and respond to incidents across Zscaler’s network and endpoint signals, including data from partners such as CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender and SentinelOne.
• Zscaler sees substantial growth potential in its core business and emerging AI offerings: it serves about 4,600 of an estimated 20,000 enterprise customers, while its AI-agent security product remains in early access and Agentic SOC is expected to become a larger opportunity over the next several years.

Zscaler NASDAQ: ZS executives outlined how the cybersecurity company is adapting its zero-trust architecture for AI agents, while also discussing new product launches, sales initiatives and the potential for continued growth in its core business.

Speaking at a company session, Head of Product Adam Geller said Zscaler’s proxy-based architecture remains central to its security approach because it provides an inspection point for traffic moving between users, applications, data sources and, increasingly, AI agents.

“The whole point of doing cybersecurity is you’re looking for either threats coming in or you’re trying to understand where data is moving and should it be moving or not,” Geller said. While simply connecting systems can move data from point A to point B, a proxy can observe activity and enforce policy, he said.

AI Traffic Requires Different Security Inspection

Geller said securing AI interactions differs from traditional web security because AI systems may involve extended, multi-turn conversations rather than single transactions that need a near-instantaneous approval or denial decision.

For example, a request mentioning a “cookie” could concern a recipe, but additional exchanges could reveal it relates to an authentication session cookie containing sensitive information. As a result, security platforms need to understand a broader context window and inspect multiple turns of an interaction, he said.

AI security also introduces risks beyond traditional malware, vulnerabilities and data leakage. Organizations may need to determine whether someone is attempting to poison an AI model or cause it to perform an unintended action, Geller said. “When you’re proxying AI communications, you need different kinds of inspection engines for that traffic.”

Chief Financial Officer Kevin Rubin said customer conversations have intensified as organizations assess vulnerabilities and exposures they may not have previously identified. He said patching alone may not address risks associated with old equipment or operating systems that are difficult to update.

Rubin said Zscaler’s answer is to help customers hide applications, reduce their attack surface and limit an attacker’s ability to move laterally after a potential breach.

Agentic SOC Launch Draws on Security Signals

Geller highlighted Zscaler’s Agentic SOC launch, which uses an agent framework to help customers detect, investigate and respond to security incidents. The system is designed to process the 750 billion signals Zscaler sees daily, according to Geller.

He said the product was built around “agent-first interaction” rather than a traditional security operations center model that collects data into a data lake, normalizes it and produces alerts for human analysts. Zscaler’s Agentic SOC uses a family of dozens of agents for detection, investigation and response, with capabilities also incorporating elements from the company’s Red Canary acquisition.

Addressing competitive questions around endpoint and security information and event management data, Geller said Zscaler has both network visibility and a presence on 60 million endpoints. He said the company’s endpoint capabilities provide data including data-loss prevention, policy inspection, user performance and software inventory.

Zscaler’s agents can also use endpoint detection and response data from partners including CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender and SentinelOne, Geller said. He added that network telemetry can help investigators understand where a user or machine went and what activity occurred beyond an endpoint alert.

Sales Strategy and Product Adoption

Rubin said Zscaler has expanded the range of ways it can approach prospective customers. In addition to user transformation, the company can discuss security for manufacturing facilities and branches, AI initiatives, application exposure management and Agentic SOC capabilities, he said.

However, Rubin emphasized that several AI offerings are still new. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange for AI Agents is in early access rather than general availability, while many AI capabilities have been released within the last six months.

• Net retention rate was 115% for each of the last four quarters, according to Rubin.
• Z Flex, the company’s flexible pricing and packaging offer for longer-term and larger commitments, has produced a 30% uplift in annual recurring revenue in customer contracts on a before-and-after basis, Rubin said.
• Zscaler serves about 4,600 enterprise customers out of a target population of roughly 20,000, or about 25% penetration, Rubin said.

To pursue new customers, Rubin said Zscaler is investing in sales representatives dedicated to enterprise prospecting territories, updating seller incentives and working with Carahsoft to pursue more opportunities in markets where Zscaler does not devote substantial internal resources.

Rubin said fourth-quarter sales productivity was the highest quarterly level the company has seen, while fiscal 2026 productivity was the highest since 2022. He said Agentic SOC is likely a larger fiscal 2028 opportunity, while Zero Trust Exchange for AI Agents could become more meaningful in the back half of the year.

On the outlook for Zscaler’s core Zero Trust business, Rubin said the company still sees substantial opportunity among customers that have not adopted its platform. Geller added that AI could drive an increase in internally developed applications, including applications built by employees who are not traditional developers. Those applications will still need security controls, he said.

Rubin said that, in the view of Zscaler founder Jay Chaudhry, securing agent-to-agent communication could represent an opportunity significantly larger than securing users.

About Zscaler (NASDAQ:ZS)

Zscaler, Inc is a cloud-native cybersecurity company that provides security services designed to help organizations connect users, devices, applications and workloads securely over the internet. Its platform is built around a zero-trust security model, which verifies access based on identity, context and policy rather than relying primarily on a traditional corporate network perimeter.

The company's offerings include Zscaler Internet Access, which secures access to internet and software-as-a-service applications, and Zscaler Private Access, which provides secure, policy-based access to private applications without requiring conventional virtual private networks.

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