Prisma AIRS is Palo Alto Networks' AI security platform. As of 17 October 2026, its product page describes it in four verbs, "Discover. Assess. Protect. Govern.", across AI apps, agents, models and data. Teams searching for Prisma AIRS alternatives usually fall into one of three groups. Some do not run Palo Alto Networks and want a vendor-neutral option. Some need one layer, such as guardrails or agent authorization, and not a platform. Some need evidence an auditor can check without access to the vendor's console. This guide covers what Prisma AIRS includes, where it is strong, and how to choose. Other vendor guides are on the comparison hub.
What Prisma AIRS covers (as of 17 October 2026)
The Prisma AIRS product page lists these capability areas:
- AI Gateway, which Palo Alto Networks calls "the AI Control Plane for the enterprise".
- AI Supply Chain Security (formerly AI Model Security), which scans third-party models for model tampering, malicious scripts and deserialization attacks.
- AI Red Teaming, which simulates attacks on AI agents and applications.
- AI Runtime Security, which monitors AI behavior and enforces real-time safeguards.
- AI Posture Management, covering AI data, the integrity of agents and apps, and access to deployed models.
- Agent Identity Security and Agentic Endpoint Security.
The page's FAQ names two deployment modes, Network Intercept and API Intercept. It also says the runtime engine detects prompt injection, sensitive data exposure, malicious URLs and toxic content.
Two acquisitions shape the platform. Palo Alto Networks completed its acquisition of Protect AI on 22 July 2025. It closed the acquisition of Portkey, an AI gateway company, on 29 May 2026. The general-availability post for the Prisma AIRS AI Gateway says the gateway brings Portkey's work into Prisma AIRS. It describes the gateway as a unified LLM, MCP and A2A gateway, with central rules for model access, tool use and budgets, scoped credentials in place of raw provider keys, and inline inspection of prompts and responses.
Where Prisma AIRS is strong
- Breadth in one contract. Model scanning, red teaming, runtime inspection, posture, an AI gateway and agent identity come from one vendor. A team that wants fewer vendors gets a lot of coverage.
- Network position. Network Intercept lets a team that already runs Palo Alto Networks firewalls inspect AI traffic without changing each application.
- Model supply chain. Scanning third-party model files for tampering and deserialization attacks is a separate problem from runtime policy. Few agent-governance tools cover it.
- A gateway with roots in a dedicated product. The AI Gateway builds on Portkey, an acquired AI gateway company.
If you already standardize on Palo Alto Networks, the integration and procurement benefits are real. Our post on platform-bundled versus pure-play agent security explains why buyers who use the platform vendor often choose its bundled option.
Why teams evaluate alternatives
The reasons are mostly about fit, not about quality:
- No Palo Alto Networks estate. The network-intercept advantage assumes the traffic already passes through that vendor's enforcement points.
- One layer needed. A team that only needs prompt and response guardrails may want a smaller API product. A team that needs per-tool-call authorization for its own agents may want a control plane built for that.
- Independent evidence. Some auditors and buyers ask for audit evidence they can check offline, without trusting the vendor's dashboard.
- Procurement and residency. A smaller or regional vendor can be easier for some EU buyers. That depends on the buyer, so check it in your own process.
Alternatives by category
| What you need | Category | Examples covered on this site |
|---|---|---|
| One AI security platform across network, models, red teaming and runtime | AI security platform | Cisco AI Defense, Prisma AIRS |
| Prompt and response guardrails through an API | Guardrail API | Pangea, Lakera |
| Agent-focused discovery, red teaming and runtime protection | Agent-native security | Lasso Security, Noma Security |
| Per-agent identity, per-tool-call policy, approvals and signed evidence | Agent control plane | Praesidia |
| An AI gateway first, with security added | AI gateway | Portkey, Kong AI Gateway |
These categories overlap. A platform such as Prisma AIRS spans several of them. The useful question is which layer must make the final decision on each action, and which product owns that layer in your design.
Where Praesidia fits
Praesidia is our product. It is an AI agent control plane, not a network security platform, so it does not replace the network, endpoint or model-scanning parts of Prisma AIRS. What it does:
- Identity per agent. Each registered app, agent and MCP server gets its own credentials for authentication and attribution, independent of the humans who deployed it. The MCP security guide covers the server side in depth.
- A decision on each governed tool call. The decision uses the agent's identity, the tool's permission on that connection and the arguments, and, on the Advanced tier and Enterprise, what the agent did just before. New policies start in observe mode. Denials and holds apply once a policy is set to enforce.
- Approvals for MCP tool calls. A step-up rule turns an MCP tool call into a durable approval request that expires if nobody answers.
- Gateway guardrails. In the model gateway, guardrail rule matches can block, warn, redact or replace. ML and LLM guardrails block or warn.
- Evidence you can check without us. Praesidia records the decisions it makes in an append-only, hash-chained audit trail, signed under the default configuration; an operator can turn signing off. A signed record shows it was not changed afterwards. It does not show that every action was captured. Calls that do not pass through Praesidia are not recorded. Your auditor checks an exported bundle with an offline verifier whose source is public under Apache-2.0.
Two limits matter in a comparison with a platform this broad. Praesidia's discovery covers five sources only: OpenTelemetry GenAI traces sent to it, agents and MCP servers registered through the API or SDK, unregistered callers seen reaching a registered agent, the tool inventory of registered MCP servers, and scans of connected GitHub and GitLab repositories where that is enabled. It does not discover cloud accounts, data warehouses or endpoints. And Praesidia does not currently publish a SOC 2 report or an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate.
Some teams run both: a platform such as Prisma AIRS for network and model coverage, and a control plane for agent identity, tool-call policy and the audit trail. The runtime security page shows how the tool-call decision works.
Questions to ask in an evaluation
- Which deployment mode will you run? Network Intercept and API Intercept see different traffic. Ask which agent paths each mode covers in your architecture, not in a reference design.
- What happens to traffic that skips the gateway? An agent that calls a model provider or an MCP server directly is outside any gateway. Ask how the product finds and handles it.
- Is the decision per request or per action? Ask whether a policy can use a tool call's arguments and the agent's earlier actions, or only the prompt and response text.
- Can a third party check the evidence offline? Ask for a sample export and the tool that verifies it.
- What is in your licence? Platforms sell modules. Confirm which capabilities above are in the quote you receive.
Common questions
What is Prisma AIRS? Prisma AIRS is Palo Alto Networks' AI security platform. As of 17 October 2026, its product page lists an AI gateway, AI supply chain security, AI red teaming, AI runtime security, AI posture management, agent identity security and agentic endpoint security.
Is Prisma AIRS the same product as Portkey? No. Palo Alto Networks closed its acquisition of Portkey on 29 May 2026 and says the Prisma AIRS AI Gateway brings Portkey's work into Prisma AIRS. Portkey was a standalone AI gateway; Prisma AIRS is the wider platform.
Does Praesidia replace Prisma AIRS? Not as a whole. Praesidia does not scan model files and does not intercept network traffic. It governs the agents, model calls and MCP tool calls routed through it, holds calls for approval, and produces signed evidence an auditor checks offline. Teams that need both kinds of control often run a platform and a control plane together.
What is the main difference between an AI security platform and an agent control plane? A platform inspects AI traffic and assets across many surfaces. A control plane gives agents their own identities and decides their actions against policy. The first asks whether the content is safe. The second asks whether this agent may take this action now.
Sources (as of 17 October 2026)
- Palo Alto Networks, Prisma AIRS product page: capability areas, FAQ on deployment modes and detections.
- Palo Alto Networks, Announcing the general availability of Prisma AIRS AI Gateway: gateway scope and the Portkey link.
- Palo Alto Networks, Completes acquisition of Portkey, 29 May 2026.
- Palo Alto Networks, Completes acquisition of Protect AI, 22 July 2025.