Agentic development is software creation in which AI agents help plan, write, modify, and test code with limited human oversight. Instead of acting only as a chat assistant, the agent can take task-oriented steps across a development workflow, such as proposing changes, generating files, running tests, and suggesting fixes.
This matters in cyber security because the same speed that improves delivery can also expand risk. If an agent has broad repository, CI/CD, or cloud permissions, a bad prompt, poisoned dependency, or malicious instruction hidden in data can lead to unsafe code or unintended changes. Defenders reduce that risk with least privilege, approval gates, isolated test environments, strong logging, and rollback paths. In mature environments, agentic development can improve security by automating repetitive checks, but only when human control remains real and auditable.