Singulr AI expands Richard Bird role to steer agentic risk

Singulr AI has expanded Richard Bird's remit, naming him Chief Security and Strategy Officer, as it ties its security work more closely to corporate strategy amid growing enterprise interest in agentic AI.

The move gives Bird a dual role spanning security strategy and market direction. It follows the recent launch of Agent Pulse, a product focused on runtime governance for AI agents.

Singulr operates in AI governance and security, an area drawing more attention as organisations move from pilots to production. Agent-based deployments can run across business processes with less direct human input than earlier AI tools, increasing the need for clear policy, access controls, and reliable records of system behaviour.

Bird has spent years in security leadership and enterprise technology, with an emphasis on governance and security operating models. Singulr describes him as an industry voice on AI governance and "agentic risk," including the limits of established security controls when autonomous systems act in live environments.

The expanded remit suggests Singulr expects customers to treat AI governance as a cross-functional issue rather than a narrow technical programme. Security teams typically manage risk frameworks and incident response, while strategy leaders and business owners set priorities for automation and digital transformation. Singulr is bringing those threads together under one executive role.

Broader remit

Bird's responsibilities now include shaping strategy and market direction alongside leading security strategy. The role also covers customer engagement, which often involves advising on governance models and operating controls for AI systems.

Shiv Agarwal, Singulr AI's co-founder and CEO, said the change formalises work already underway across the business.

"Richard has been a clear and credible voice on where AI governance is headed and what enterprises are getting wrong as agents begin to operate with more autonomy," said Shiv Agarwal, Co-Founder and CEO, Singulr AI. "Expanding his role into 'CSO2' formalizes the impact he is already having across our strategy, our market point of view, and how we help customers think about control, accountability, and trust in the age of agentic AI."

Agent Pulse sits in a category vendors often describe as runtime governance-applying policy and oversight while AI agents operate, not only during development. As firms adopt AI agents, they are weighing how to prevent unintended actions, manage permissions, and create auditable records showing why an automated system took a step.

Buyers are also navigating a changing regulatory and risk environment. Data handling, model behaviour, and accountability have become board-level topics in many sectors. Security teams are being asked to adapt existing controls and procurement checks to new systems, including those that generate code, move data between tools, or initiate workflows.

Industry shift

Bird described the appointment as part of a wider shift in how enterprises approach security and governance in AI programmes. He added that security considerations increasingly shape decisions about where and how companies deploy AI agents.

"AI is forcing enterprises to rethink not just security, but how strategy, governance, and operational control fit together," said Richard Bird, Chief Security and Strategy Officer, Singulr AI. "The responsibility of both roles reflects a broader shift happening across the industry. In an AI-driven enterprise, security isn't a separate function; it's a primary driver of strategy. The organizations that move fastest and most responsibly will be the ones that align innovation, governance, and strategy from the start."

The leadership change comes as AI governance continues to develop into a defined market segment. Some organisations have established AI councils and model risk committees, while others have added AI-focused checks to existing security and compliance processes. Many are still working out ownership, funding, and operating boundaries between security, data teams, and business functions.

Vendors have responded with tools that track model usage, manage access to model endpoints, apply policy to prompts and outputs, and log activity for audit and investigation. Tools aimed at agent-based systems also focus on monitoring actions, controlling tool access, and setting guardrails around task execution.

Singulr has not disclosed any other executive team changes as part of the announcement. It said Bird will continue to play a visible role in shaping its external message on AI governance and the security requirements of autonomous systems.