AI Agents Are Changing Cybersecurity Forever. Zscaler Is Positioning Itself to Win Big.

Chat bot with AI Artificial Intelligence generate by MMD Creative via Shutterstock

Zscaler (ZS) held its annual Zenith event last week, and management focused on how AI is changing the rules of the game. Traditional firewall-based security was suitable when all the users, applications, and data were in one place, but this no longer remains a robust method. Users now access applications from all over the world, thanks to improved cloud infrastructure and adoption.

Zscaler sees the emergence of AI as both a threat and an opportunity. Agents and agentic traffic running continuously — making thousands of requests every second — could eventually surpass the number of human users these systems are currently used to. Susquehanna analyst Shyam Patil, who has a $200 price target on ZS stock, noted that this is increasing the urgency for Zero Trust architecture — a security model that requires every user, application, and device to verify itself every time rather than being trusted automatically.

Analysts remain divided on the significance of the opportunity that Zscaler sits on. Meta Marshall of Morgan Stanley believes that increased board-level scrutiny and internal sales team changes could slow near-term growth for the firm. Marshall has an “Equal Weight” rating on the stock with a $145 price target compared to Patil’s $200 target. The gap in these targets reflects differing views on how quickly Zscaler can turn its AI security opportunity into actual revenue.

About Zscaler Stock

Zscaler is a U.S. cloud security firm that protects businesses from cyber threats by securing users, devices, and applications from any location. The company operates globally, offering Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), and its Zero Trust Exchange platform to large organizations. Founded in 2007, Zscaler is headquartered in San Jose, California.

ZS stock has faced pressure over the past 12 months with a loss of around 58%. In comparison, the…

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