Cybersecurity company Sophos has announced the general availability of Sophos AI Defense, a security solution designed to identify AI tools and agents used across organizations and enforce policies to reduce security risks, including the use of unauthorized applications known as shadow AI.
Delivered through Sophos Fusion, the company’s AI-native cybersecurity defense system, the solution connects security controls across devices, networks, identity sign-ins, and browsers. It gives security teams visibility into AI activity and helps prevent sensitive business data from being exposed through prompts, file uploads, and other AI interactions.
Sophos AI Defense analyzes activity across these layers to assess user behavior and data involved, helping distinguish routine AI use from potentially risky activity. Security teams can also investigate and respond to threats through existing Sophos Extended Detection and Response (XDR) workflows, with support from Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) analysts.
The launch addresses growing concerns over shadow AI. According to figures cited by Sophos, 69% of organizations suspect or have evidence that employees use unsanctioned AI tools and agents, while 82% have discovered shadow AI agents in their environments over the past year. Meanwhile, IDC projects that 1.3 billion AI agents will be in use by 2028.
Sophos X-Ops has also tracked emerging threats involving AI, including attackers using AI agents to develop and test nearly 80 malware modules, the sale of brokered API keys for advanced AI models, and the underground trading of AI jailbreak techniques.
“Organizations are adopting AI faster than they can secure it,” said Kyle Falkenhagen, senior vice president of product management at Sophos, emphasizing the need for visibility into which AI tools are running, what data they access, and whether their use complies with organizational policies.
Sophos AI Defense is available now, providing organizations and managed service providers with additional capabilities to govern AI usage and strengthen cybersecurity as AI adoption expands.
For more information, visit the Sophos AI Defense product page or read the Sophos AI Security 2026 report.
