---
Title: "What Are AI Guardrails? Types and Examples"
Url: "https://computer.io/glossary/ai-guardrails"
Topic: "AI safety"
Description: "AI guardrails are controls that keep AI safe, accurate and on-policy, such as input filters, output checks, permissions and approvals. Types and examples."
---

# What are AI guardrails?

AI guardrails are controls that keep AI systems safe, accurate and within policy, such as filtering harmful inputs, checking outputs, limiting topics, enforcing permissions and requiring human approval for risky actions. They are essential before letting AI agents act in business systems.

## Types

| Guardrail | Example |
| --- | --- |
| Input | Block prompt injection |
| Topic | Stay on product support |
| Output | Check for PII or policy violations |
| Grounding | Answer only from sources |
| Action | Approval for refunds over $100 |
| Access | Respect user permissions |

## Best practices

Layer guardrails, test them with evals and red-teaming, and log every action.

## FAQ

### Why do AI agents need guardrails?

Because they can take actions, mistakes have real consequences.

### What is prompt injection?

Malicious instructions hidden in input that try to change AI behavior.

### Do guardrails slow AI down?

Slightly, but they're necessary for safe deployment.

## Related terms

- [AI hallucination](https://computer.io/glossary/ai-hallucination)
- [Human in the loop (HITL)](https://computer.io/glossary/human-in-the-loop)
- [AI governance](https://computer.io/glossary/ai-governance)
- [Which AI agents are safe for enterprise use?](https://computer.io/answers/which-ai-agents-are-safe-for-enterprise-use)

## How Computer helps

- [How computer works](https://computer.io/how-computer-works)
- [Agent studio](https://devrev.ai/agent-studio)

## Further reading

- [Build enterprise ai agents](https://devrev.ai/blog/build-enterprise-ai-agents)