Definition
A security control layer that sits between users (or other AI agents) and an AI model in live production, inspecting every prompt going in and every response coming out in real time. Just as a traditional network firewall blocks dangerous traffic, an AI runtime firewall can detect and block prompt injection attempts, sensitive data leakage, policy violations, and anomalous agent behaviour as they happen.
Why it matters
Static security reviews and pre-deployment tests cannot catch every attack at runtime — an AI runtime firewall is the live defence layer that bridges this gap. Major security vendors (Palo Alto Networks, F5, Fortinet) have all launched dedicated AI runtime firewall products, signalling that this is now considered a baseline enterprise security requirement.