As businesses stand on the precipice of an AI-native future, the transition to agentic AI raises a fundamental question: how can autonomous systems be trusted to operate within the strict boundaries of corporate policy and regulatory compliance?
While the potential for efficiency is immense, the risks of agents acting in non-compliant ways, improperly handling sensitive data or being exposed to security threats are equally significant. Google’s Gemini Enterprise platform provides a powerful solution to this challenge by offering a secure and governable environment for building and deploying these new AI agents.
This is where the combined expertise of Google and a top-tier partner like Endava becomes invaluable. According to IDC, global spending on AI is projected to exceed $300 billion by 2026, yet a significant portion of these investments will fail without a clear strategy for governance and risk management.
The agentic governance challenge, solved by design
Gemini Enterprise is not just a tool for building AI agents; it is a comprehensive platform built on the principle of governance by design. It directly addresses the shortcomings of traditional AI governance frameworks by integrating security, control, and auditability from the moment an agent is created.
Here’s how specific Gemini Enterprise features directly solve the governance problems businesses face, turning a potential liability into a strategic advantage:
- Integrated security and identity management: Gemini Enterprise treats every AI agent as a first-class citizen with its own unique, verifiable identity. It provides robust identity and access management (IAM) that controls precisely what data and systems an agent can interact with. This is a game-changer for security, as it enforces the principle of least privilege, ensuring an agent handling marketing data cannot accidentally access sensitive customer records, and vice versa. This also provides an additional layer of security against phishing attacks, as the platform itself can be configured to recognise and block anomalous behaviour.
- Observability and explainability: For regulators and internal compliance teams, the "black box" nature of some AI is a significant concern. Gemini Enterprise tackles this with built-in observability features that provide a detailed "chain of thought" for every action an agent takes. You can trace an agent’s decision-making process, from the initial prompt to the final output, and see which tools or data sources were used along the way. This meticulous logging is a gold standard for generating the auditable evidence that regulators require, demonstrating that the agent is adhering to protocols and policies.
- Configurable guardrails and policy enforcement: Rather than simply training an agent and hoping it follows the rules, Gemini Enterprise allows organisations to hard-code compliance policies as guardrails. These rules act as a safety net, preventing agents from taking actions that violate company policy or regulatory requirements. For example, a guardrail could be set to automatically redact personally identifiable information (PII) before it is processed by an agent, or to halt an action if it triggers a pre-defined security alert.
Research from sources like the IBM and Ponemon Institute's Cost of a Data Breach Report underscores the financial stakes. The average cost of a data breach reached a record high of $4.45 million in 2023, with highly regulated industries like financial services and healthcare facing even higher costs. Gemini Enterprise’s integrated security measures are designed to mitigate these risks by preventing breaches before they happen.
Endava: your partner in building a secure AI foundation
The power of Google’s Gemini Enterprise, however, can only be fully realised when it's built upon a solid technical foundation. As a top-tier Google Cloud partner, we specialise in helping organisations prepare for an AI-native future by addressing the critical need for a cloud-based, secure and modern data infrastructure.
Many companies are constrained by outdated systems and siloed data, which prevents them from fully leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence. According to McKinsey research, companies that have successfully implemented AI see a return on investment of 10% to 20% on their investments. This kind of ROI is only possible with a robust data and infrastructure strategy.
Our unique value proposition lies in our ability to not only migrate operations to the Google Cloud but also to modernise the data and implement high-level security protocols. This holistic approach ensures that your most sensitive data is protected while you gain the ability to unlock the full potential of AI.
Our expertise complements Gemini Enterprise by:
- Modernising data: By transforming and centralising a company's data, we ensure that the information feeding the AI agents is clean, secure, and ready for use. This prevents the "garbage in, garbage out" problem that can lead to biased or non-compliant outcomes.
- Implementing high-level security: Our work on cloud security provides the essential groundwork for Gemini Enterprise’s identity and access controls. Their deep understanding of Google Cloud security protocols means that the entire ecosystem – not just the agents – is built to protect against both internal and external threats.
- Providing a strategic roadmap: Our scale and expertise enable them to support both large enterprises and growing companies in achieving their strategic objectives. They can help an organisation move beyond simple tool adoption to building a complete, compliant, and scalable AI strategy that is fully integrated into business operations.
By combining Google’s innovative Gemini Enterprise platform with Endava’s foundational expertise in cloud migration, data modernisation and security, businesses can build a trusted, compliant and scalable agentic workforce. It’s an approach that not only embraces the future of AI but also ensures that the "unseen workforce" of autonomous agents operates with the integrity and accountability that is required in a highly regulated world.