As artificial intelligence becomes embedded into everyday business operations, organizations are discovering that traditional security models fall short—especially when it comes to protecting generative and agentic AI systems in production.
The New Customer Challenges
Enterprises face a growing number of threats that didn’t exist even a year ago. These include:
Scraper Bots: Automated AI bots now aggressively crawl websites to siphon off content and feed large language models (LLMs). In industries like publishing and media, this threatens monetization and intellectual property rights.
Prompt Injection and Output Manipulation: LLM-based tools are highly susceptible to crafted prompts that hijack the model’s behavior, exposing sensitive data or producing toxic and non-compliant outputs. Traditional firewalls are blind to this type of activity.
API Exposure: APIs power the majority of AI functionality, yet remain one of the least protected components in enterprise architecture. Shadow AI and poorly governed integrations create entry points for attackers and amplify business logic abuse.
Operational Blind Spots: Security teams are often not included early enough in the AI development process. As a result, many organizations lack visibility into how AI is being used and what risks it introduces.
The Akamai Solution
To address these emerging threats, Akamai introduced its Firewall for AI, purpose-built for securing generative AI and LLM-based applications at runtime.
This capability works by monitoring both input and output of AI models, enabling it to detect and block:
Prompt injections
PII leaks and data exposure
Toxic language and non-compliant responses
Remote code execution attempts
Hallucinations and misleading outputs
The firewall is optimized for low latency, ensuring protection does not interfere with performance—critical for real-time AI services. It also integrates easily into modern environments, reducing deployment friction and accelerating time to value.
Why It Matters
Over 70% of enterprises have already reported an AI-related security event in the last year. With generative AI being deployed faster than policies and controls can catch up, organizations need a runtime defense that can adapt and scale.
Akamai’s approach doesn’t just plug gaps—it empowers security teams to actively participate in AI innovation. By providing threat researchers, demo access, and on-site engagement at events like Black Hat, Akamai also helps CISOs move from reactive to proactive—gaining a deeper understanding of the threats and the tools available to defend against them.
Final Word
Securing AI isn’t a theoretical challenge—it’s a day-one requirement. By protecting runtime activity, defending API access, and neutralizing scraper bots, organizations can embrace AI innovation without sacrificing safety or trust.
Learn more about Akamai: https://itspm.ag/akamaievki
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Guest: Rupesh Chokshi, SVP & General Manager, Application Security, Akamai | https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupeshchokshi/
