Cequence has introduced new functions in its AI Gateway and updated its Agent Personas system. The release brings model, API and tool controls together under what it calls Agentic Zero Trust.

The update adds AI Discovery, API Registry, LLM Registry and Skill Registry. It also expands Agent Personas so an AI agent’s assigned role determines which models, tools and services it can use.

Cequence is addressing a problem that has emerged as companies roll out AI agents across departments such as finance, marketing, human resources and operations. Security teams often have to review each new use case manually, creating delays and leaving governance split across separate systems for APIs, models and tools.

Under the new approach, an agent’s identity is linked to a defined job description. That description can specify approved large language models, permitted APIs, available tools and relevant guardrails, with those limits enforced through policy rather than case-by-case approval.

Unified controls

The release is designed to cover the main external channels used by AI agents. In Cequence’s framework, MCP governs how agents discover and use tools, the LLM Registry governs calls to and from language models, and the API Registry governs access to back-end services and data.

Agent Personas sit across those layers by binding the agent to a single role-based identity. Cequence argues that this prevents agents from operating beyond their intended remit, even if they encounter exposed credentials or vulnerabilities elsewhere in a system.

The announcement comes amid wider concern over how autonomous software agents are controlled once connected to enterprise applications and data. Companies have adopted scanners, gateways and prompt filters, but many security leaders still lack a single record of which agents are in use, what they can access and how they can be shut down if controls are breached.

Cequence also cited a recent incident disclosed by OpenAI in which two models escaped a sandboxed evaluation environment, crossed the open internet and breached Hugging Face production infrastructure. It used that case to argue that sandboxing alone does not constrain an agent if no policy binds it to a specific job.

“Most vendors look at agent governance and build another approval queue. We looked at it and built the persona instead,” said Shreyans Mehta, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, Cequence. “An agent’s job should automatically determine what it can touch, without relying on a security team to manually map policy by hand every time someone wants a new use case. That’s what makes broad adoption safe and scalable. The agent gets exactly what its job requires, and nothing more.”

What is new

AI Discovery is intended to identify agents, LLM providers and MCP servers already operating inside an organisation by drawing on existing SIEM logs, including systems that did not go through a formal approval process.

According to Cequence, API Registry allows agents to call approved APIs without holding the underlying credentials. Instead, agents authenticate through a single AI Gateway access key, either through a web-based invocation tool or proxied endpoints.

Skill Registry is aimed at security and platform teams that want a pre-approved set of reusable functions for agents. Once a tool or workflow is vetted, it can be reused across different agent deployments without repeating the same review from scratch.

LLM Registry extends that logic to model access. Cequence said it brokers credentials across major LLM providers so agents do not hold a provider API key directly, while built-in data loss prevention checks prompts and responses for blocked content, including encoded payloads and non-approved Unicode characters intended to evade filters.

The registry can also apply model rules at team level, such as steering routine work to lower-cost models while reserving more advanced models for engineering tasks. It also provides token-level usage visibility, plus rate and spending controls linked to the persona behind each request.

Policy mapping

A central part of the release is the claim that policy enforcement can now be automated because the tools, APIs and skills available to an agent are formally catalogued. Without that catalogue, policy decisions have often depended on manual judgment.

“Automatic policy mapping was not possible until now, because there was nothing consistent for a policy engine to reason over,” said Abraham Jeevagunta, Vice President of AI Products, Cequence. “Before API Registry and Skill Registry, every tool and API a persona could be bound to was uncatalogued, so mapping policy to persona was a manual judgment call every time. Now, that record exists and the policy engine can read it directly. It is what lets a business user stand up a correctly governed agent without ever touching AI Gateway’s policy model themselves.”

The new functions are available as part of AI Gateway for existing Cequence customers. Cequence said its platform currently protects more than 10 billion daily API interactions and 4 billion user accounts.

Watlington Community Property wanted to list No 2 High Street, which is currently under offer, to protect it from unwanted development.

However, the district council turned down the application.

Phil Barker, the director of communities for the district council, explained the decision.

He said: “The letting policy was provided and it outlines how the group will manage any future letting.

“It mentions the group’s objectives but without the governing document in view, it is unclear what those objectives and aims are or if they will meet the social well-being or social interests of the local community.

“Although the nominator has demonstrated how they will look to raise funds and manage the building in the future, they have not demonstrated how the building could further the social well-being or social interests of the local community.

High Street, Watlington (Image: Google Street View)

“The nature of the nomination seems more aimed towards an interest in commercial stores for the community, rather than commercial stores for the benefit of social wellbeing or social interests for the community.”

Bella Luce lighting, which was in the building, closed at the end of January.

Members of the group want to buy it to determine how it is used in the future.

Steph Van de Pette, of Spring Lane, has lived in Watlington for about 11 years and owns SO Sustainable in High Street.

She set up her zero-waste refill shop in 2019 next door to Bella Luce.

Mrs Van de Pette is the secretary for the group, founding it with John Riddell, who owns the Spire and Spoke pub in Hill Lane, and Jess Carlisle, whose father Mark owned the building before he died last year.

READ MORE: Anti-racism group concerns after Tommy Robinson weighs in on Bicester asylum row

Watlington (Image: Contribution.)

The trio are now part of a management committee, including Robin Fieth, who chairs the committee and Kevin Senior, who is their treasurer.

Previously, the trust was seeking about £250,000 to buy the property but now it wants to buy two more in High Street — No 6, known as the Watlington Arcade, and No 26, which is a former bicycle repair shop.

The total cost, if the group bought all three, would be about £600,000.

The group said it has acquired about £281,000 in pledges so far and is currently waiting for its registration to be confirmed under the Financial Conduct Authority, so they can open a bank account and progress to formal share offers.

The group is also being supported by Plunkett UK, based in Woodstock, a charity which supports people who live in rural areas to set up and run businesses in community ownership.

Mr Fieth told the Henley Standard that while there is an offer on No 2, if it’s successful, it wouldn’t be the end of the project.

KAREN JOY BACUDO

Finance Editor

Research from bluQube found that 89.3% of UK businesses use less than three-quarters of the functions in their finance systems. The study surveyed senior finance decision-makers across the UK.

The findings point to a gap between investment in finance software and its day-to-day use within finance teams. More than four in ten businesses use only 26% to 50% of the features available in their systems, while 36.6% use 51% to 75%.

Functions beyond core accounting were most likely to go unused, including automated invoice processing, data entry tools, and integrations with payroll, customer relationship management, and procurement systems.

The pattern suggests many companies have installed finance software without fully embedding it in routine operations. It also indicates they are not getting the return they expected when they bought the systems.

Value has also taken longer to appear than many finance leaders anticipated. More than half of businesses (52.2%) expected their finance systems to deliver value within six months, but only 42.4% said that happened.

For a sizeable minority, the wait was much longer. Nearly a third, 31.6%, said it took more than ten months to realise value from their finance system.

Spreadsheet reliance

The research also found that finance work continues to take place outside the systems companies have paid for. More than six in ten businesses (60.3%) said they still use spreadsheets weekly or daily as part of their finance processes.

Using spreadsheets alongside formal finance platforms can duplicate routine tasks and leave key work spread across different tools. In practice, businesses may be running parts of their finance operation in parallel rather than through a single system.

Bristol-based bluQube said the results form part of a broader look at finance system adoption, value realisation, and confidence in finance technology. The research is the first study in its Confidence Gap series.

A common theme in the data is partial adoption rather than the absence of software. Businesses have finance systems in place, but many do not appear to be using a large share of the tools built into them.

That matters because many of the underused features are designed to reduce manual work or connect finance teams with other parts of the business. If those functions are not switched on or adopted by staff, the software may offer less practical benefit than expected.

“The data is telling us that businesses are missing an opportunity and suffering from misalignment between systems and the fabric of their finance teams. Finance systems should start to deliver value immediately, which makes the long wait times to see real value delivered particularly concerning. Equally, reports of widespread activity outside of these systems are a symbol of inefficiency across UK businesses,” said Simon Kearsley, Chief Executive Officer at bluQube.

“Taking the time to identify the right finance system for your team and sticking to robust implementation protocols can help ensure that the system works to its full potential for your business.”

The results add to a wider debate over how companies measure returns on business software spending. Buying and installing a platform is often only the first stage. Staff training, process redesign, and system integration can determine whether the investment changes how work gets done.

In this case, the survey suggests the gap opens quickly. While a majority expected value within six months, fewer than half achieved that timetable, pointing to a mismatch between expectations at purchase and experience after roll-out.

The data also shows that underuse is not limited to a small group of laggards. With 89.3% of businesses using less than three quarters of available functions, partial adoption appears to be the norm rather than the exception among the organisations surveyed.

For finance leaders, that raises a practical question over whether existing systems are configured and used in a way that matches the needs of their teams. The persistence of weekly and daily spreadsheet use suggests many businesses still rely on familiar manual processes even after investing in dedicated finance software.

Nearly a third of businesses had to wait more than ten months before realising value from their finance system.