On Aug. 6, DXC announced a strategic partnership with security startup Primary, becoming the exclusive managed services provider for Primary’s AI-native Zero Trust Platform.
The joint offering is designed to help enterprises and government agencies govern how AI agents and enterprise AI applications access data, identities, and business systems.
The companies are targeting organizations that are moving AI from pilot projects into production environments, where autonomous systems can interact with sensitive enterprise data across multiple applications and infrastructure layers. DXC will deliver the platform through its global cybersecurity organization, providing consulting, implementation, integration, governance, and ongoing managed security operations.
Traditional enterprise security tools were largely built around users, devices, and networks. AI agents behave differently: they can operate autonomously, call other tools, and move across systems without direct human involvement.
Primary describes its platform as a Unified Zero Trust Control Plane for governing AI workflows. According to the company, the platform continuously evaluates access requests and enforces policies based on factors including identity, context, permissions, data sensitivity, and real-time risk.
“As enterprises move from AI pilots to production, security and governance must evolve just as quickly,” said Dawn-Marie Vaughan, Cybersecurity Global Offering Lead at DXC Technology. “Trusted AI requires more than securing infrastructure; it requires governing how AI systems access data, identities, and business processes.”
Primary says its platform can apply controls at machine speed and revoke access immediately when risk signals indicate compromised credentials or suspicious AI behavior.
Focus on regulated industries
The partnership is aimed especially at organizations operating in highly regulated environments where data sovereignty, auditability, and compliance requirements are strict. The companies say the service can help secure AI agents, strengthen identity and policy enforcement, reduce operational risk, and improve visibility across users, applications, data, and AI systems.
“The defining security challenge of enterprise AI is not simply seeing what an AI agent is doing—it is having enough context to determine whether that action should be allowed, as well as the corresponding infrastructure to automate enforcement of that real-time decision,” said Michael Marx, Primary’s Co-Founder + President.
The bigger picture
This partnership reflects a broader shift in enterprise AI adoption. Many companies have already experimented with generative AI tools, but production deployments require stronger governance over autonomous systems that can retrieve data, trigger actions, and interact with core business applications. The deal positions DXC as a managed security partner for customers that want AI controls without building a new identity and governance platform themselves.
The approach also has tradeoffs. Organizations adopting the service will rely on a third-party-managed security model, and the platform’s effectiveness will depend on how well it integrates with existing identity systems, applications, and compliance processes. Even with Zero Trust controls, companies must still maintain strong underlying security hygiene across the environments where AI agents operate.
For DXC, the partnership adds another AI-focused cybersecurity offering as enterprises increasingly seek to scale AI while maintaining tighter control over who — or what — can access their most sensitive data.
Read more: OpenAI Presence Brings Governance to Enterprise AI Agents explores how OpenAI and its implementation partners are helping enterprises deploy and govern AI agents in production.