Zscaler appoints Swamy Kocherlakota to lead Agentic AI security engineering

Zscaler, the cloud security company, has appointed Dr. Swamy Kocherlakota as Executive Vice President of Agentic AI Security Engineering, effective January 2026. The move comes as enterprises expand the use of artificial intelligence systems that act autonomously, rather than as traditional chat-based tools.

The company said that Kocherlakota will focus on building security controls for these agent-driven workflows within the company’s Zero Trust architecture.

In his new role, Kocherlakota is responsible for defining how Zscaler secures AI agents that operate as both users and applications. The company aims to address gaps that arise when autonomous systems bypass assumptions built into existing enterprise security models. The work is expected to sit at the platform and architecture level, rather than through standalone tools.

Before joining Zscaler, Kocherlakota spent more than eight years at S&P Global. His most recent role there was Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Solutions Officer. He previously served as Global Chief Information Officer from 2017 to 2023. At S&P Global, he oversaw enterprise technology, data platforms, and digital transformation across regulated financial and analytics businesses.

Kocherlakota was also a long-standing member of the S&P Global Ventures investment committee, which evaluates investments in areas such as artificial intelligence, risk analytics, cybersecurity, and data platforms. In addition, he served on the board of the S&P Global Foundation and was a board member of the Wall Street Technology Association until 2024.

Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder of Zscaler, said, “Swamy brings a unique depth of experience in shaping AI strategies within complex, highly regulated environments. Under his leadership, we plan to accelerate the expansion of our Zero Trust architecture to secure human and machine identities alike, ensuring Zscaler remains the industry's most trusted security platform for the AI era.”

“Zscaler defined and pioneered Zero Trust security for users and applications, and I believe it’s the only company with the data and architecture required to secure the AI era,” said Swamy Kocherlakota, Executive Vice President of Agentic AI Engineering, Zscaler.

His academic background is in computer science. He earned a master’s degree and a PhD from Michigan State University, where he studied from 1989 to 1996. He completed his undergraduate education at Andhra University.