---
title: "Guardian agent"
description: "An AI agent whose job is to supervise, check or constrain other agents at runtime; Gartner predicts guardian-agent technologies will account for at least 10 to 15% of agentic AI markets by 2030."
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/guardian-agent
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-25
---

# Guardian agent

An AI agent whose job is to supervise, check or constrain other agents at runtime; Gartner predicts guardian-agent technologies will account for at least 10 to 15% of agentic AI markets by 2030 [1].

- Developed in: [ch. 04, Layer 04: Runtime Controls & Observability](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/the-stack#layer-04-runtime-controls--observability); [ch. 23, Runtime guardrails for tool calls](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-agents#runtime-guardrails-for-tool-calls)
- Chapters: [ch. 04, The Stack](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/the-stack) · [ch. 23, AI Agents](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-agents)
- Contrast with: [Guardrail](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/guardrail)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-guardian-agent

## Sources

[1] "Gartner Predicts that Guardian Agents will Capture 10-15% of the Agentic AI Market by 2030" (at least 10 to 15% of agentic AI markets by 2030). Gartner. 2025-06-11. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2025-06-11-gartner-predicts-that-guardian-agents-will-capture-10-15-percent-of-the-agentic-ai-market-by-2030 (verified: primary)