Rubrik has unveiled SAGE, the Semantic AI Governance Engine, at RSAC 2026 in San Francisco. The company is positioning it as the first AI governance engine purpose-built to secure and control autonomous agents in real time. SAGE powers Rubrik Agent Cloud, replacing manual, rules-based oversight with intent-driven governance.

The core problem SAGE addresses is a governance bottleneck slowing enterprise AI deployment. Legacy systems depend on deterministic rules that cannot process natural language or adapt when agents take unexpected actions. Rubrik’s answer is a custom Small Language Model (SLM) that interprets the semantic meaning behind policies, rather than scanning for keywords, and enforces them as a real-time command center for agentic operations.

“SAGE marks a pivotal moment in AI security as we shift the focus from if agents can be deployed to how they can be governed at scale,” said Devvret Rishi, General Manager AI at Rubrik. “With SAGE, we can move beyond simple monitoring to a future where AI helps us govern AI agents. Now, we give CISOs the guardrails they need to let their AI agents run at full speed without compromising the security and integrity of the enterprise.”

Key capabilities inside SAGE include Semantic Policy Interpretation, which translates natural language instructions such as “Do not give financial advice” into machine logic that catches context static filters would miss. The proprietary SLM also enables Adaptive Policy Improvement, proactively flagging ambiguous guardrails and suggesting refinements before a violation occurs. When an agent does make an error, Integrated Remediation kicks in, triggering Rubrik Agent Rewind to undo destructive actions and restore data integrity.

Rubrik also shared benchmark data comparing its custom SLM against OpenAI’s GPT-5.2. In a standardized set of user-agent interaction tests, Rubrik’s SLM processed messages five times faster, detected policy violations with higher accuracy, and significantly reduced the compute overhead typically associated with real-time AI monitoring.

The announcement comes as enterprises push to scale AI agent deployments while CISOs demand stronger controls. SAGE is designed to let organizations accelerate that rollout without trading security for speed.

Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK) describes itself as the Security and AI Operations Company, with its Security Cloud covering data protection, cyber resilience, and enterprise AI across cloud environments.