Riyadh – Sharikat Mubasher: As Saudi Arabia accelerates the adoption of AI agents capable of autonomous decision-making across government services, financial institutions, and large enterprises, Cisco is warning that security must extend beyond AI models to include agents themselves and the wider AI supply chain.

Momentum around agentic AI is building across the Kingdom as organizations explore advanced use cases aligned with national digital transformation goals, as per a recent press release. According to Cisco’s AI Readiness Index 2025, 91% of organizations in Saudi Arabia already plan to develop or deploy AI agents. However, many continue to face challenges related to infrastructure readiness, skills planning, and securing increasingly complex AI environments.

Fady Younes, Managing Director for Cybersecurity at Cisco Middle East, Türkiye, Africa, and Romania, comments: “As AI agents move from experimentation to real-world deployment across the Middle East, organizations are facing new security considerations. From the third-party components used to build AI systems, to how autonomous agents interact with data and tools, securing the full AI lifecycle is becoming increasingly important for maintaining digital trust and resilience.”

Cisco unveiled its ‘AI Defense’ as a security platform designed to protect enterprise AI applications throughout their lifecycle. The solution includes AI supply chain scanning to identify vulnerabilities in third-party models and datasets, as well as purpose-built runtime protections to defend AI agents against threats such as prompt injection, data leakage, and tool compromise.

Cisco said the platform is aimed at supporting organizations in regulated Saudi sectors, including government, financial services, and critical infrastructure, as AI adoption continues to scale across the Kingdom.