What SASE / CASB was built for
Data moving between known apps
- Discrete events: an upload, a download, a login
- A defined set of apps with dedicated inspection profiles
- Structured patterns like card numbers, crossing a boundary you control
Category comparisonSASE & CASB
Zscaler and Netskope were built for the cloud era. AI moved the risk onto the device.
Inspecting traffic on its way to the cloud was the right answer for 2019. It's the wrong shape when the sensitive thing isn't a file crossing a boundary, it's a paragraph typed into a chat window.
Two different problems
SASE solved the cloud problem. It was never built for the AI problem.
Both are about data leaving your control. That's where the similarity ends.
What AI actually looks like
Unstructured content, written at the point of use
- 1,000+ apps and embedded features, shipping faster than profiles can be built for them
- Strategy, source code, a client's name in context: nothing for a regex to match
- Desktop apps and coding agents that often route through nothing
Where control lives
Three surfaces, none of them the network edge
A network appliance sees a destination, a size, a timestamp. Not the paragraph inside the request, not which account sent it.
01
Browser extension
Reads the prompt and any attachment before it's sent, including AI features buried inside SaaS tools that share a domain with the product. Nothing to decrypt, because the content is visible before encryption.
02
Endpoint agent
Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and desktop clients call APIs directly. The agent doesn't wait for traffic to reach an inspection point, so a laptop on airport wifi gets the same controls as one on the VPN.
03
MCP Gateway
Agents call tools rather than browse to them. The gateway enforces per call on the content, stopping one agent sending customer data through one tool rather than blocking the connection outright.
Head to head
How Harmonic compares to Zscaler, Netskope, Cato, Palo Alto and Cloudflare
Every major vendor has added AI capability, usually by pointing existing DLP engines at AI domains, then buying browser coverage to reach the endpoint: Zscaler bought SquareX, Palo Alto bought Talon. What they add is general-purpose browser security, not AI-specific inspection.
Read the coverage numbers carefully
Blocking 1,000+ AI apps is not the same as controlling them.
Large published counts usually describe domain-level allow or deny. The list with real prompt-level inspection is shorter: four tools for Cloudflare's AI Prompt Protection, roughly twenty for Cato, five to thirty for most platforms. Harmonic applies warn, nudge and block across 1,000+.
Personal vs. enterprise accounts
Session metadata can't reliably tell a personal ChatGPT login from a corporate one.
That's often the difference between an acceptable interaction and a reportable one. Sitting at the point of use, Harmonic attributes the interaction to the account behind it.
What's actually inside the file
Attachment inspection is often limited to metadata: name, size, destination.
Harmonic's small language models classify prompts, files and tool calls semantically in roughly 200ms. Context is the point: a developer referencing a schema and someone pasting live credentials look identical to a pattern match.
What you report to the business
Volumetric usage reporting versus use cases generated from what was actually written.
Adoption counts answer "is AI being used." Harmonic classifies interactions into business use cases built from your own data, which answers "what work is it doing." That's the question a CIO asks once the first has been answered a few times.
We needed to understand not just which AI tools were being used, but how they were being used. That's a completely different question, and it's the one that actually matters.
It's literally hours to seconds. If we deploy a tool and it's covered by Harmonic, we have insight right away.
1,000+AI applications with prompt-level controls
~200msInline semantic classification
3Enforcement surfaces: browser, endpoint, MCP
Frequently asked
The questions buyers actually ask us
Including the ones where the answer is no.
Is Harmonic a replacement for our SASE or CASB?
No, and we don't pitch it that way.
Your SASE handles network access, segmentation and web filtering. None of it was built to read what an employee types into an AI tool. Harmonic is the interaction layer on top.
We already have CASB coverage for AI apps. Isn't that enough?
It depends whether that coverage is real inspection or a domain-level verdict.
Deep coverage needs a per-app inspection profile plus traffic routed through the proxy. Both are finite, and AI tools ship faster than profiles can be certified, so the long tail falls back to allow or block by domain.
How do you handle SSL/TLS inspection without breaking things?
There's no decryption step, so no certificate pinning conflicts and nothing to break when a vendor tightens their TLS configuration.
Do you replace the DLP capability inside our SASE?
For AI interactions, yes. For everything else your DLP covers, no.
Legacy DLP was built for known channels and structured patterns and is still right for those. AI prompts are unstructured and conversational, which is the gap the SLMs close.
Book a demo
AI security that doesn't kill the vibe. See how in 30 minutes.
No proxy config, no routing changes. You'll get a map of AI use across your organization, with the data exposure attached to each use case.
What happens next
- 1We review your submission and reach out within one business day.
- 2We tailor the demo to your stack, your team size, and your biggest AI risks.
- 330-minute live walkthrough — you leave with a clear picture of your exposure.
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EU & US hosted
We don't train on your data
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