Robust Intelligence vs HiddenLayer

Both compete in Red-Teaming & AI Security. Robust Intelligence positions itself as “AI Firewall and automated model validation to secure AI from build to production”, while HiddenLayerleads with “AI detection and response plus red teaming to protect machine learning models and AI products”. The table below compares what each publishes.

Where Robust Intelligence pulls ahead

Publishes support for NIST AI RMF, which HiddenLayer does not. Enterprise security and ML risk teams wanting adversarial testing plus runtime protection mapped to AI-security standards

Where HiddenLayer pulls ahead

Enterprises and regulated organizations needing runtime protection and detection for production ML models

	Robust Intelligence	HiddenLayer
Positioning	AI Firewall and automated model validation to secure AI from build to production	AI detection and response plus red teaming to protect machine learning models and AI products
Category	Red-Teaming & AI Security	Red-Teaming & AI Security
Frameworks	NIST AI RMF	None published
Deployment	SaaS, On-prem, API	SaaS, On-prem, API
Built for	Security, Data Science / ML, Risk	Security, Data Science / ML, Risk
Founded	2019	2022
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, USA	Austin, Texas, USA
Ownership	Acquired by Cisco (2024, reported ~$400M); now part of Cisco AI Defense	Private (VC-backed)
Funding	~$44M raised prior to acquisition; valued above $200M	$56M total; $50M Series A in 2023 led by M12 and Moore Strategic Ventures, with Booz Allen, IBM and Capital One Ventures
Pricing	Enterprise licensing (now sold within Cisco AI Defense)	Not published
Key capabilities	AI Firewall runtime input/output protection Algorithmic red teaming Automated model validation and stress-testing Prompt-injection and jailbreak defense OWASP LLM and MITRE ATLAS mapping Continuous production monitoring	Machine Learning Detection and Response (MLDR) Model scanning Automated red teaming Real-time attack detection AI risk and governance reporting Response actions (alert, isolate, deceive)
Integrations	Cisco Security Cloud / AI Defense, Major LLM providers, ML pipelines and model registries	Not published
Notable customers	None published	None published
Best for	Enterprise security and ML risk teams wanting adversarial testing plus runtime protection mapped to AI-security standards	Enterprises and regulated organizations needing runtime protection and detection for production ML models
Limitations	Absorbed into Cisco, so it is increasingly delivered as Cisco AI Defense rather than a standalone product; enterprise-oriented, less accessible to small teams	Historically ML-model centric; buyers seeking full agentic AI governance or compliance certification may need complementary tooling.

Which should you shortlist?

Choose Robust Intelligence if enterprise security and ML risk teams wanting adversarial testing plus runtime protection mapped to AI-security standards

Choose HiddenLayer if enterprises and regulated organizations needing runtime protection and detection for production ML models

Neither is a substitute for a governance program. Whichever you pick, you still need people who can define the policies the tool enforces.

Full Robust Intelligence profile →Full HiddenLayer profile →

AI Governance Tool Selection Kit

A vendor-comparison worksheet plus EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001 requirement checklists — so you can shortlist tools against the obligations that actually apply to you.

Free. No spam — unsubscribe anytime.