The Next Layer of AI Infrastructure: Controlling Agentic Traffic

As AI becomes increasingly integrated into applications, a new form of traffic, known as agentic traffic, is emerging, where autonomous AI agents independently call APIs and services, leading to potential challenges in governance, cost management, and security. This shift from simple text generation to autonomous action necessitates a new infrastructure layer, termed AI Gateways, to manage and control the outbound API calls generated by these AI components. Traditional API gateways, designed for managing inbound traffic, are inadequate for this new challenge, as agentic calls often bypass them, causing unpredictable costs and security risks due to overbroad permissions. To address these issues, AI Gateways offer features like prompt-aware policies, usage tracking, and secure credential handling, functioning as middleware components to enforce policies, optimize costs, and provide visibility. As the AI agent ecosystem develops, implementing governance layers becomes essential to prevent chaos and enable secure, efficient scaling of AI-driven systems.