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Creating AI agents is easy, and the problem is "users often turn off VPNs or otherwise skirt security controls to spin up agents to act as assistants," the report's authors state. The result is a large volume of unsanctioned AI applications, both internally and launched by vendors.

Across the industry, there is concern that agents are starting to get out of hand, with agent sprawl now a pervasive problem. "We are already seeing patterns similar to early cloud adoption, where teams spin up agents independently using different frameworks and vendors," said Kriti Faujdar, senior product manager at Microsoft. "This leads to fragmentation, inconsistent governance, and hidden security gaps."

The authors of the ZeroLabs survey found a disconnect between perceived control and operational reality among agents. Just about all IT managers, 86%, anticipate that agentic proliferation will outpace security guardrails in the next year. More than half (52%) expect this to happen within the next six months. Plus, nearly all respondents indicate they lack the "undo" capabilities necessary to roll back unintended agent actions.