Fortinet FortiAI vs Zscaler AI Runtime Protection: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)

Fortinet FortiAI

Mid-market and enterprise security teams already running Fortinet infrastructure will see immediate payoff from FortiAI because it closes the detection-to-response gap without adding isolated tooling. The platform covers seven NIST CSF 2.0 functions across risk assessment, continuous monitoring, and incident analysis while automating alert triage and policy execution, which matters when your SOC is understaffed. Skip this if you need a standalone threat intelligence feed or you're not invested in the Fortinet ecosystem; FortiAI is built to amplify what you already have running, not replace it.

Zscaler AI Runtime Protection

Mid-market and enterprise teams deploying LLMs at scale need Zscaler AI Runtime Protection primarily for its near-zero latency filtering of prompt injections and jailbreaks without slowing inference. The tool's real-time detection paired with full prompt and response logging addresses NIST DE.CM and DE.AE requirements that most AI security offerings skip over. Skip this if your organization runs fewer than three LLM applications in production or needs post-incident recovery capabilities; Zscaler is detection and blocking only, not forensic reconstruction.