#611: Building AI Agents? Set Up These Guardrails First

Big thanks to ‪@Cisco‬ & ‪@Splunkofficial‬ for sponsoring my trip to .Conf 2026 and also for sponsoring this video. AI agents can do things you never intended. So how do you monitor their behavior, spot security problems and decide what they should be allowed to do? I’m joined by Splunk’s Kamal Hathi at .conf26 to discuss AI agent security, observability and what an agentic SOC means for the people working in cybersecurity. Kamal explains why setting a goal isn’t enough. You need visibility into what your agents are actually doing, clear guardrails and human oversight for important decisions. We also discuss why monitoring only a sample of agent activity can leave gaps, and how focused small language models could help reduce evaluation costs. In this interview, we cover: • Known agents, unregistered agents and unexpected behavior • AI evaluations, guardrails and zero trust • Automating SOC alert triage while keeping humans in control • Using AI to create SOAR playbooks • Running models locally for privacy, cost and control • Choosing between local models and cloud models • Whether you should still study computer science in 2027 If you’re building AI agents, working in cybersecurity or deciding what to learn next, this conversation will give you plenty to think about. // Kamal Hathi’s’ SOCIAL // LinkedIn: / kamal-hathi // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.com/invite/usKSyzb Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal YouTube: / @davidbombal Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3f6k6gE... SoundCloud: / davidbombal Apple Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... // MY STUFF // https://www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: [email protected] // MENU // 0:00 - Coming Up 0:43 - Intro 02:25 - Security Against AI 06:26 - Collecting Data on your AI 08:33 - AI Hallucinations 10:48 - Is Life Like Sci-Fi? 14:09 - Will AI Replace You? 17:16 - Not Giving Your Information to AI 18:50 - Kamal's Prediction for the Future of AI 20:20 - Final Thoughts 21:29 - What Should you Study in 2027? 22:00 - Conclusion Please note that links listed may be affiliate links and provide me with a small percentage/kickback should you use them to purchase any of the items listed or recommended. Thank you for supporting me and this channel! Disclaimer: This video is for educational purposes only. #SplunkConf26 #Splunk #Cisco