What is Telemetry (AI)?
Telemetry (AI) aI telemetry is the automated collection and transmission of operational data from AI agents, including performance metrics, behavioral data, errors, and security events. It enables monitoring, debugging, and security analysis of agent systems.
On this page
What is Telemetry (AI)?
Telemetry in AI systems refers to the data automatically collected from agents during their operation and transmitted to monitoring systems for analysis. This includes performance metrics (latency, token usage, success rates), behavioral data (actions taken, tools used, decisions made), error information (failures, exceptions, timeouts), and security events (blocked actions, detected threats, policy violations). Telemetry is the raw material that enables observability, security monitoring, and system optimization.
How Telemetry (AI) Works
Telemetry systems instrument AI agents to capture relevant data at various points: inputs received, outputs generated, tools invoked, errors encountered, and resources consumed. This data is formatted (often as structured events or metrics), batched for efficiency, and transmitted to collection endpoints. Processing pipelines normalize and enrich the data, storing it in systems optimized for different query patterns—time-series databases for metrics, search indices for logs, specialized stores for traces. Analysis tools and dashboards make the data actionable.
Why Telemetry (AI) Matters
Telemetry is the foundation of AI operations and security. Without telemetry, you're flying blind—you don't know what your agents are doing, whether they're performing well, or if they're under attack. Telemetry enables real-time monitoring, historical analysis, incident investigation, and continuous improvement. For security specifically, telemetry provides the evidence needed to detect attacks, investigate incidents, and demonstrate compliance. Good telemetry design captures what's needed for all these use cases while respecting privacy and minimizing overhead.
Examples of Telemetry (AI)
Every AI agent interaction generates telemetry: input text, output text, tools called, latency measurements, and any errors. This data flows to a monitoring system where dashboards show real-time performance. Security alerts trigger when telemetry shows unusual patterns. Post-incident analysis uses historical telemetry to reconstruct exactly what happened during an attack. Aggregated telemetry reveals that agents perform slower on certain query types, informing optimization efforts.
Key Takeaways
- 1Telemetry (AI) is a critical concept in AI agent security and observability.
- 2Understanding telemetry (ai) is essential for developers building and deploying autonomous AI agents.
- 3Moltwire provides tools for monitoring and protecting against threats related to telemetry (ai).
Written by the Moltwire Team
Part of the AI Security Glossary · 25 terms
Protect Against Telemetry (AI)
Moltwire provides real-time monitoring and threat detection to help secure your AI agents.