The software security landscape is evolving faster than ever, and AI is accelerating this change. As generative and embedded AI become core to how software is developed, tested, and deployed, security must adapt to protect an entirely new layer of risk.

At Mend.io, we’ve spent the past year reimagining what Application Security Testing (AST) looks like in this new reality. That’s why we’re proud to share that Mend.io is a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Application Security Testing (AST).

Our placement reflects more than a product milestone — it represents a strategic shift toward securing not just code, but the AI driven behaviors shaping tomorrow’s software.

Why vision matters in application security

Traditional AST has long focused on code analysis and vulnerability detection. But as AI becomes part of the development stack itself — through generative models, automated coding assistants, and machine-learning pipelines — the nature of risk changes.

Mend.io’s vision is rooted in this understanding. We believe the next generation of AST must:

• See beyond code to understand the behavior and context of AI driven systems.
• Empower developers to remediate issues directly within their existing workflows.
• Automate intelligently, not indiscriminately — surfacing what truly matters and fixing what can be fixed fast.

This approach is what sets Mend.io apart — and it’s why Gartner positioned us as a Visionary in this year’s Magic Quadrant™.

Redefining AST around AI, automation, and empowerment

Our latest advancements build on Mend.io’s foundation of developer-centric security. Here’s how we’re turning that vision into reality:

1. Detecting AI risks that others miss

Mend.io goes beyond traditional AST by identifying vulnerabilities not only in code, but also in AI components — including large language models (LLMs), third-party AI frameworks, and custom models. With Mend AI Premium, teams can even simulate adversarial testing (“AI red-teaming”) to proactively uncover behavioral risks like misinformation or data leakage.

2. Triaging with context, not chaos

Security teams often drown in noise. Our correlation engine unifies findings across SAST, SCA, container, and infrastructure scans — connecting related vulnerabilities so they can be resolved with a single action. That means less noise, faster resolution, and smarter prioritization.

3. AI powered remediation that fits the developer flow

From auto-generated fixes in IDEs to Mend Renovate’s intelligent pull requests, Mend.io delivers remediation where developers already work. The result: faster fixes, lower mean time to remediation (MTTR), and minimal disruption to velocity.

Empowering every team that touches software

Security is no longer the responsibility of one team — it’s a shared mandate across development, operations, AI, and compliance. Mend.io is built for that collaboration:

• Developers & Engineering Leaders: Security that integrates seamlessly into daily workflows, providing real-time insights without context switching.
• Security Teams: Unified dashboards that bring all scan data — code, open source, containers — into one view for complete risk visibility.
• DevSecOps Teams: Automated, policy-driven checks triggered at commit time, catching issues before they reach production.
• AI Security Leaders: Holistic visibility into AI models, behaviors, and governance, including tools for detecting risks in conversational AI.
• Compliance Professionals: Automated SBOMs and open-source license enforcement that simplify audits and strengthen trust.

The road ahead: Building securely in the age of AI

Being recognized as a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Application Security Testing (AST) is both validation and motivation. It reaffirms that Mend.io is charting the right course — one that prioritizes innovation, automation, and AI driven defense.

Our mission is clear: to help organizations build securely at the speed of AI. We’ll continue to evolve our platform, deepen our AI capabilities, and push the boundaries of what modern AST can achieve — so our customers can innovate boldly, without compromise.

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*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Mend authored by Mend.io Team. Read the original post at: https://www.mend.io/blog/the-vision-behind-mends-recognition/