Of course, no one paying attention to the rapid expansion of AI across business needs me to tell them that this is far from a typical new product announcement.
We are definitely in the awkward middle of a phase where AI can seem like an unruly animal: very powerful, somewhat unpredictable, and sometimes a little reckless.
It is in that context that we find the launch of the new Agent Commander platform today – a platform that promises not only to diagnose AI problems, but also to “reverse” AI-based errors.
While that’s something we’ve all been familiar with in some areas of IT for years, when it comes to AI security, most of us haven’t seen this in the playbook.
Given that, it’s not hard to see why Veeam is getting so much interest in its new platform. If AI agents make their own decisions at light speed, you obviously won’t be able to wait hours to find a problem and days to fix it.
That has been a real problem that many security personnel have seen firsthand. What’s exciting about Agent Commander — and why many CTOs and other business technology leaders are a little excited — is that Veeam promises to do all three: detect AI vulnerabilities, protect AI workloads, and reverse AI actions.
In an environment where most of our tools are designed for detection and protection, that’s an interesting idea. Veeam’s approach is to give security teams a single view of all data, identities, and AI operations in real time.
Many tools exist that do some of these tasks, but not all, or not in real time. I can almost imagine the debate going on in CTO-level staff meetings today: “Yes, yes, detecting AI threats is a good thing.
But what if the AI agent has already done something it shouldn’t? What if some sensitive data has already been misused?” I’m sure many security teams have been grappling with this question for months.
According to the survey, a high percentage of businesses are already experiencing AI-related security issues. Existing tools don’t do the job here. That’s why the IT teams I’ve talked to aren’t just talking about security anymore; they talk about trust.
They want to trust AI agents enough to continue to embrace AI for all the powerful benefits it can bring to their organizations without fear that their next data breach will come from their AI systems.
While Veeam’s Agent Commander isn’t a panacea, its promise to define AI tasks and choose to override them could be the start of what these teams have been looking for.
But while I think that’s a big thing, and I think it’s important to step back and understand that this is another sign of a bigger truth about AI: We’re now in the official “agent” AI era, where AI agents don’t just respond to questions and requests but take autonomous actions, often connected to a chain of services and data.
They make decisions at a speed and level that is difficult for people to keep up with. That creates new vulnerabilities and that’s why tools and frameworks designed for the previous generation of static applications look outdated today.
Veeam’s announcement today is underpinned by a new product launch and an announcement that AI is different. So where does that leave us today? I think Veeam’s new Agent Commander is an important reminder that AI isn’t just something we’ll have to prepare for — it’s something we’ll have to manage.
And while we will no doubt have many more questions as these autonomous AI agents continue to emerge, I think this is a good starting point for the conversation. And who knows? Maybe one day we will actually have AI that can help us control ourselves.
