You Can't Govern What You Can't See: The Case For Agent Control Planes

Article excerpt

As AI agents become more autonomous and prevalent in enterprise systems, organizations need robust 'control planes' to govern their behavior, essentially oversight mechanisms that determine whether agents can run, what constraints they operate under, and what evidence justifies their actions. The article argues that without visibility into agent operations and decision-making, companies risk losing control over critical systems. A control plane approach treats AI governance as an infrastructure problem rather than a policy afterthought, requiring clear rules, audit trails, and the ability to intervene when agents exceed their authority. This framework becomes essential as agents move from experimental tools to production systems managing real business processes.