Confidential Agents
Confidential Agents, built by OPAQUE Systems, is a platform for deploying AI agents that keep data encrypted during computation using hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs).
Publisher review
Confidential Agents, built by OPAQUE Systems, is a platform for deploying AI agents that keep data encrypted during computation using hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). It is designed for enterprises in regulated industries like financial services, insurance, and healthcare that need to use proprietary or sensitive data in AI workflows without risking leakage or non-compliance. The platform targets organizations that have been blocked from moving AI agents from pilot to production due to privacy and compliance concerns, offering verifiable proof—not just promises—that policies are enforced before, during, and after execution.
The platform operates through two core components: OPAQUE Studio, a LangGraph-based drag-and-drop environment for building confidential agents, and OPAQUE Confidential Runtime, a hardware-attested engine that provides cryptographic policy enforcement, runtime encryption, workload isolation, and hardware-signed audit logs. It integrates with NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails and LangChain's agent framework, and supports multi-agent collaboration where agents can escalate, delegate, and adapt autonomously within secure environments. OPAQUE claims a 4-5x faster AI deployment speed, a 67% reduction in deployment costs, and improved accuracy up to 99% by grounding AI with sensitive proprietary data without hallucinations.
OPAQUE competes with major hardware and cloud vendors including NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Google, Microsoft Azure, and AWS, as well as AI safety companies like Anthropic. While these competitors offer confidential computing capabilities, OPAQUE is positioned as the only Confidential AI platform purpose-built for AI workloads that delivers cryptographic proof of data and model weights. The platform's adoption is accelerating as Gartner reports that confidential AI is becoming a foundational requirement for enterprise AI, and that companies unable to prove privacy compliance in AI workflows will fall behind competitors by as much as two years.
A key trade-off is that Confidential Agents require TEE-capable hardware, which may not be available in all cloud regions or on-premises environments, potentially limiting deployment flexibility. The platform's deep integration with LangGraph and LangChain means teams using other agent frameworks (e.g., AutoGen, CrewAI) may face migration effort. While OPAQUE emphasizes verifiable guarantees, the complexity of setting up attestation and policy enforcement workflows can require specialized security expertise. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, which may be a barrier for smaller teams evaluating the platform against open-source or pay-as-you-go alternatives.
How it works
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Hardware-backed TEEs
Ensures data remains encrypted during computation within Trusted Execution Environments, providing infrastructure-level confidential guarantees.
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Verifiable audit trails
Delivers hardware-signed audit reports and logs for compliance, offering cryptographic proof of data privacy and policy enforcement.
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Multi-agent collaboration
Supports sophisticated workflows where agents escalate, delegate, and adapt autonomously within secure environments.
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LangGraph integration
Built on LangGraph, enabling developers to build multi-agent systems with structure and reliability while enhancing privacy and runtime trust.
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Runtime policy enforcement
Enforces policies and guardrails on data usage during execution, with cryptographic proof that rules are actually followed.
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NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails
Integrates with NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails to add safety layers and policy enforcement to confidential agent workflows.
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Turnkey RAG workflows
Provides pre-built Retrieval-Augmented Generation workflows that ground AI agents in proprietary data while maintaining confidentiality.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Delivers verifiable cryptographic proof of data and model weights, not just promises, for end-to-end privacy and compliance.
- Accelerates AI deployment speed by 4-5x while eliminating compliance hurdles, according to OPAQUE's published claims.
- Improves AI accuracy up to 99% by safely grounding agents with sensitive proprietary data without hallucinations.
- Reduces deployment costs by 67% compared to traditional approaches that require manual security reviews and compliance audits.
Trade-offs
- Requires Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)-capable hardware, which may not be available in all cloud regions or on-premises environments.
- Pricing is not publicly disclosed, making it difficult for small teams or individual developers to evaluate cost feasibility.
- Deep integration with LangGraph and LangChain may require migration effort for teams using alternative agent frameworks like AutoGen or CrewAI.
- Setting up attestation and policy enforcement workflows demands specialized security expertise, potentially increasing initial deployment complexity.
Pricing context
Not publicly disclosed in the provided sources; enterprises must contact OPAQUE for pricing.
Getting started with Confidential Agents
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Sign up for OPAQUE
Visit the OPAQUE Systems website and request access to Confidential Agents. Complete the enterprise registration form to receive credentials for the OPAQUE Studio and Confidential Runtime.
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Connect your data sources
In OPAQUE Studio, configure connections to your proprietary data stores, such as databases or document repositories. Ensure the data is encrypted and accessible only within the Trusted Execution Environment.
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Build a confidential agent
Use the drag-and-drop LangGraph interface in OPAQUE Studio to design a multi-agent workflow. Define agent roles, escalation rules, and integrate NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails for policy enforcement.
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Run a test workflow
Deploy the agent in the OPAQUE Confidential Runtime with a sample query. Verify that the hardware-attested execution encrypts data and produces a signed audit log of the operation.
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Schedule recurring deployments
Set up automated triggers in OPAQUE Studio to run your confidential agents on a schedule or in response to events. Monitor audit logs to ensure ongoing compliance and policy enforcement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Confidential Agents and how does it protect data?
Confidential Agents, built by OPAQUE Systems, is a platform for deploying AI agents that keep data encrypted during computation using hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). It provides verifiable cryptographic proof of data privacy and policy enforcement for regulated industries.
How does Confidential Agents ensure compliance in AI workflows?
It uses hardware-signed audit logs and runtime policy enforcement within TEEs to deliver cryptographic proof that data privacy rules are followed before, during, and after execution. This verifiable guarantee helps enterprises meet strict regulatory requirements in financial services, insurance, and healthcare.
What are the core components of the Confidential Agents platform?
The platform has two core components: OPAQUE Studio, a LangGraph-based drag-and-drop environment for building confidential agents, and OPAQUE Confidential Runtime, a hardware-attested engine providing cryptographic policy enforcement, runtime encryption, workload isolation, and hardware-signed audit logs.
What integrations does Confidential Agents support for AI development?
It integrates with NVIDIA NeMo Guardrails for safety layers and policy enforcement, and with LangChain's agent framework for building multi-agent systems. It also supports multi-agent collaboration where agents can escalate, delegate, and adapt autonomously within secure environments.
What are the limitations of using Confidential Agents?
It requires TEE-capable hardware, which may not be available in all cloud regions or on-premises. Deep integration with LangGraph and LangChain may require migration effort for teams using other frameworks like AutoGen or CrewAI. Pricing is not publicly disclosed, and setup demands specialized security expertise.
How does Confidential Agents compare to competitors like NVIDIA or AWS?
While competitors offer confidential computing, OPAQUE is positioned as the only Confidential AI platform purpose-built for AI workloads that delivers cryptographic proof of data and model weights. It claims 4-5x faster deployment, 67% cost reduction, and up to 99% accuracy by grounding AI with sensitive data.
Alternatives
How Confidential Agents compares
Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Confidential Agents
- Pricing
- Not publicly disclosed in the provided sources; enterprises must contact OPAQUE for pricing.
- Target
- Confidential Agents, built by OPAQUE Systems, is a platform for deploying AI agents that keep data encrypted during computation using hardware-backed Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs).
- Strength
- Delivers verifiable cryptographic proof of data and model weights, not just promises, for end-to-end privacy and compliance.
- Watch for
- Requires Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)-capable hardware, which may not be available in all cloud regions or on-premises environments.
VoltageGPU Confidential Agents
- Pricing
- Team Starter: $349/month, 500K tokens
- Target
- Enterprises needing hardware-level data encryption
- Deployment
- Intel TDX confidential VMs
- Strength
- Pre-built templates for legal/finance/healthcare
- Watch for
- Requires Intel TDX-compatible hardware
Opaque Confidential Agents
- Pricing
- Custom/Contact sales
- Target
- Large-scale RAG implementations
- Deployment
- Confidential computing enclaves
- Strength
- Specialized in encrypted retrieval-augmented generation
- Watch for
- Focuses narrowly on RAG use cases
Claude Cowork
- Pricing
- $30/user/month
- Target
- Desktop task automation
- Deployment
- Cloud-managed
- Strength
- Anthropic's safety-focused autonomous agent
- Watch for
- Limited to Anthropic's ecosystem
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Sources
Reporting on this tool draws on these publicly available sources.