Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said agentic AI means that enterprises will need secure browsers and the company is seeing strong demand.

For those of you focused on the large language model (LLM) rat race, the trusty browser is going to become a security headache. Why? AI agents will be accessing browsers all over the place and probably without a lot of security. Browsers are an easy mark for cyberattacks.

Consider Perplexity has launched Comet assuming it doesn’t somehow buy Google’s Chrome browser. Chrome is adding agentic capabilities to the browser. Microsoft is doing the agentic AI dance with Edge. 

The security threats via browsers with agentic AI features are just starting to be surfaced. For instance, Brave, which is aiming to make a browser that also acts as an AI agent, detailed potential attacks on AI browsers such as Nanobrowser and Perplexity’s Comet. Brave said:

“Agentic browsing is incredibly powerful, but it also presents significant security and privacy challenges. As users grow comfortable with AI browsers and begin trusting them with sensitive data in logged in sessions—such as banking, healthcare, and other critical websites—the risks multiply. What if the model hallucinates and performs actions you didn’t request? Or worse, what if a benign-looking website or a comment left on a social media site could steal your login credentials or other sensitive data by adding invisible instructions for the AI assistant?”

Enterprises appear to be catching on the the security threats. Arora said Palo Alto Networks sold more than 3 million licenses for its Prisma Access Browser in the fourth quarter. The cumulative seat count for Palo Alto Networks secure browser has more than doubled on a sequential basis.

To some degree, Palo Alto Networks is talking up its own product line. “Notable deals include an over $3 million transaction, the leading U.S. pharmaceutical company who purchased Prisma Access Browser for over 80,000 seats,” said Arora.

In 2023, Palo Alto Networks bought Talon Cyber Security, which was a leader in enterprise browser technology. Palo Alto Networks was a bit lucky.

“It’s sometimes better to be lucky than good. We bought the browser (Talon) because we felt there were certain use cases like VDI or third-party contractors or mobile devices, which are not covered by SASE,” said Arora. “About 6 to 8 months ago, you started hearing that the only way to deploy agents successfully for many consumer use cases is a browser. If you want to make a reservation on Booking.com and pick an OpenTable reservation or any agentic task, you need to control the browser. That’s what Anthropic is figuring out, that’s what OpenAI is figuring out, that’s what Perplexity is figuring out. That’s what Google is figuring out.”

Now a boom market for secure enterprise browsers may be underway. Arora said: “We are beginning to see browser wars as we see the adoption of AI. Understandably, this is a requirement as we march towards agentic. Interestingly, it will become impossible to allow employees access to nonsecure browsers in the future. And as more and more critical applications and data reside within the browser, it naturally becomes a target for cyber-attacks.”

Arora said the Prisma Access Browser “is strategically positioned to be the future OS in enabling secure and productive work in an AI-driven world.”

The reality is that no enterprise can afford to let you do whatever you want on a browser and run agents that can’t be controlled. Arora argued that enterprises will have to lock down browsers as AI agents take off.

Palo Alto Networks is betting that AI agents are going to take advantage of disparate platforms and infrastructure. The browser is going to serve as a key line of defense.

Bottom line: The secure enterprise browser market is going to be worth watching. The usual suspects will be Chrome Enterprise, Edge for Business and Firefox for Enterprise. But security vendors such as Palo Alto Networks will be in the browser mix with offerings or partnerships. Island Enterprise is another browser option and it’s worth taking Zoho’s Ulaa Enterprise for a spin. LLM players looking to expand into browsers will also need enterprise versions.