For this Leadership Compass we define AI Agent Visibility and Observability Platforms (AI-VOP) as systems that provide visibility into, and governance oversight of, autonomous AI agents and broader agent ecosystems. They combine agent discovery, agent inventory, runtime telemetry, interaction mapping, behavioral analytics, audit and compliance evidence, and explainability. These platforms provide visibility into agent identities, ownership, permissions, tools, data access, decisions, actions, and runtime behavior across enterprise environments.
AI-VOP is foundational for agentic security, but is only one part of KuppingerCole Analysts’ Six-Category Framework, Navigating the Agentic AI Security Landscape.
This is a new topic for our Leadership Compass reports. If you would like to see what our analysts has to say about AI-VOP, you can read this Leadership Brief on Agent Visibility and Observability Platforms (AVOP).
Inclusion Criteria
The research will cover vendors ranging from pure-play agent visibility, AI security, and agent observability providers to broader AI governance, identity, SaaS security, and enterprise security platforms with relevant AI-VOP functionality. Vendors will be selected based on their ability to discover and inventory AI agents, capture and analyze agent runtime activity, track and map agent relationships and delegation chains, provide governance and audit evidence, and surface or hand off actionable signal to response and enforcement systems when agent behavior becomes risky, anomalous, or non-compliant.
Evaluated solutions are expected to cover most, but not necessarily all, of the functional areas described here (please download the Market definition for detailed information). Because the market remains early and fragmented, some vendors may deliver deep runtime observability while others provide stronger discovery, identity context, or governance functionality.
Primary Areas of Evaluation
Please read the Market definition to get detailed information on each item and to see the rating percentages.
- AI Agent Discovery and Visibility
- AI Agent Inventory, Ownership, and Identity Context
- Runtime Telemetry and Trace Capture
- Interaction and Delegation Mapping
- Permission, Credential, and Tool Access Analysis
- Behavioral Analytics and Policy Violation Monitoring
- Explainability, Audit, and Governance Reporting
Exclusion Criteria
Solutions focused exclusively on prompt testing, foundational model evaluation, application performance monitoring, or developer telemetry without enterprise agent discovery and governance are out of scope. Conventional IAM, IGA, PAM, NHI management, SIEM, SOAR, SSPM, CASB, and DLP tools are also out of scope unless they provide meaningful agent-specific discovery, observability, identity context, and governance.
AI gateways that only provide routing, caching, or model access control without agent inventory or runtime understanding are likewise excluded. Agent-building and agent-hosting platforms do not qualify on the strength of their native platform features alone; they are in scope only where they provide agent-specific discovery, observability, identity context, and governance across third-party or cross-platform agents, not solely their own.
Vendors without active paying customers are excluded from this Leadership Compass.
