AI, Zero Trust & Vegas Converge During Zenith Live 25

Q: What does Las Vegas, Zero Trust and AI have in common?

A: Everything!

One of the key themes of Zenith Live 2025, which took place in Las Vegas this week and hosted about 4000 customers, prospects, vendors, analysts, media, and Zscaler employees was the concept that the relationship between Zero Trust and AI is symbiotic one, where each technology reinforces and strengthens the other.

The convergence of Zero Trust and AI represents a powerful partnership where AI enhances Zero Trust principles and vice versa, leading to more effective and adaptable security measures.

We’re all aware at this point that AI can automate tasks, analyze vast data, and automate threat detection, while Zero Trust provides the secure framework for AI to operate, protect data, and ensure responsible AI development

Zscaler believes that AI can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Zero Trust implementations, while Zero Trust provides the necessary security foundation for AI to thrive.

How is the relationship between AI and Zero Trust symbiotic in nature?

AI enhances Zero Trust—AI can automate threat detection and response, analyze user behavior, and dynamically adjust access controls based on real-time context. This allows for faster threat identification and mitigation, reducing the impact of security breaches.

Zero Trust secures AI—Zero Trust principles, such as explicit verification, least privilege access, and assuming a breach, ensure that AI applications and systems are protected from unauthorized access and malicious activity. It also helps to build trust in AI systems and mitigate risks associated with their deployment.

Zscaler is all in on AI.

Zscaler is leveraging AI within its zero trust architecture and integrating AI into its Zero Trust Exchange platform to enhance security and optimize network performance, essentially betting on the combination of zero trust and AI.

Specific AI-powered solutions highlighted include:

  • AI-powered Data Security Classification
  • enhanced Generative AI Protections
  • AI-Powered Segmentation
  • Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) Network Intelligence

The market has responded positively to Zscaler’s AI solutions, with the company’s stock price jumping significantly and analysts showing increased optimism.

Zscaler’s third-quarter fiscal 2025 results show that Revenue rose 23% YoY to $678 million, exceeding consensus estimates by 18.7%. Gross margins held steady at 80% (non-GAAP), reflecting robust economies of scale. Calculated billings surged 25% to $784.5 million, with deferred revenue climbing 26% to $1.985 billion—indicating strong customer commitment to the AI infused roadmap.

Zscaler is AI Problem Solving and AI Investment

But the market isn’t just responding to AI being baked into security products. Lots of tech companies are busy doing that. They are responding to the innovation and the problems being solved with these solutions

For example, one of Zscaler’s most impressive AI innovations is ZDX Copilot. Bookings for ZDX Advance Plus grew by over 45% year-over-year.

Zscaler Digital Experience (ZDX) Copilot addresses the challenges faced by IT teams in managing and optimizing the digital experience for their users in a complex and distributed environment by tackling problems like the lack of End-to-End Visibility, slow troubleshooting and problem resolution, and difficulty in understanding User Experience

In essence, ZDX Copilot empowers IT teams with the tools and insights they need to optimize the digital experience, improve operational efficiency, and proactively address performance issues, ultimately leading to higher user satisfaction and business productivity

The market is also responding to the commitment to AI that Zscaler has put forth.

In the second quarter of fiscal year 2025, Zscaler’s overall R&D expenses saw a significant surge, increasing by 34.7% year-over-year to $105 million. The company has almost doubled its R&D expenses in the past couple of years.

Zscaler has invested over $1 billion in the Security Operations (SecOps) space over the last year, including strategic acquisitions like Avalor and Red Canary. These acquisitions are intended to enhance Zscaler’s AI-powered security capabilities, particularly in areas like threat detection and response.

Zscaler is leveraging its vast dataset (processing over 500 trillion security signals daily) to power its AI engines, which enables faster threat detection and automated security responses

Zscaler is also spending in AI investments in the form of Human Resources like Phil Tee , EVP and Head AI Innovation.

Dr Tee was brought in to think about and work on what he terms “moonshots”. While ‘moonshot’ originally meant “long shot,” it’s increasingly being used to describe a monumental effort and a lofty goal—in other words, a “giant leap”

One of my takeaways from this conference was an energy and excitement that came from the executive team that I met.  The feeling that transmitted was one where a page had turned and while there was a commitment to the current product set, everyone was really encouraged about the possibilities that AI held. I could feel a little bit of that “moonshot” energy that Phil and I talked about.

There was a top down excitement that started with Jay Chaudhry and seemed to infuse conversation with the leadership team across engineering with Gururaj S. , product with Dhawal Sharma and marketing with Joyce Kim

My thanks to the AR– Josh DeButts and Chris Burrell and  PR— Pavel Radda and Nick Gonzalez — and their teams who added sparkle to the party and invited me to attend

What other themes emerged at the conference?

  • Extending Zero Trust “Everywhere”.
  • Expanding into Security Operations and Enabling AI Agents

Zscaler is emphasizing its commitment to extending the reach of Zero Trust security across diverse environments, including:

  • Branches and campuses: Introducing a Unified Appliance for Zero Trust Branch to secure communications and segment devices like OT and IoT, eliminating the need for traditional firewalls and VDI.
  • Cloud workloads: Offering a Zero Trust Gateway for cloud workload protection and enhancing microsegmentation for hybrid workloads.
  • B2B collaboration: Launching a B2B Exchange platform to modernize partner collaboration securely without relying on outdated technologies like MPLS and VPNs.
  • Zero Trust Exchange platform updates: These updates aim to simplify adoption, deployment, and extend zero trust into branches, campuses, and factories.

Expanding into Security Operations and Enabling AI Agents:

  • Zscaler is strategically accelerating its expansion into the security operations space.
  • A key aspect of this involves enabling and securing AI agents, recognizing their potential impact and the need for robust security measures.
  • The planned acquisition of Red Canary, a managed detection and response (MDR) provider, signifies Zscaler’s ambition to integrate agentic AI capabilities and build a new type of SecOps offering.

One of the key takeaways for me from the conference was Zscaler’s focus on a secure and simplified approach to Digital Transformation.  It was clear that a foundational message to all of the product offerings and advancements shared an overarching goal of empowering organizations to embrace digital transformation securely and efficiently. Zscaler knows that securing an enterprise isn’t easy and I see clearly their message and intent being  to simplify security infrastructure and reduce complexity, allowing businesses to scale faster without compromising security.

#ZL2025

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