Bounded autonomy is a control model where a software agent can act only within predefined rules, permissions, and conditions. In cybersecurity, this matters because automation can speed up remediation without giving an AI free rein to change systems or policy. A bounded agent might quarantine a host, rotate a credential, or close a known misconfiguration, but it cannot invent new fixes or touch out-of-scope assets.
Security teams use bounded autonomy in SOAR workflows and agentic remediation to reduce time-to-fix while keeping human oversight for ambiguous or high-impact changes. The model limits blast radius, improves auditability, and helps contain errors if the agent is compromised or misclassifies a problem. In practice, it is the difference between safe execution and dangerous self-directed action.