Artificial intelligence is reshaping how businesses operate, but the systems meant to control AI are struggling to keep up. 

For longtime entrepreneur Peter Stroot, that gap is where problems begin to surface and prompted the development of Glixin, a trade name of Liberty Lake-based Western Autotroph Co. LLC, which is a platform designed to monitor and control AI-driven activity before it causes financial loss or system disruption.

As AI continues to accelerate, Stroot says he's betting that its success will depend not just on how widely it's adopted, but on how effectively the technology is controlled. For instance, when bots can overwhelm reservation systems in seconds and buy out concert tickets, the risks of unchecked AI are no longer theoretical.

“Guardrails are needed,” Stroot says. “We know AI agents are powerful, and we know we want to use more of them. The problem is, how do you keep them on task instead of just doing whatever they want?”

That question led Stroot to launch Glixin, whose target clients are businesses that rely heavily on digital transactions, including e-commerce companies, cloud service users, and organizations vulnerable to bot-driven attacks, such as ticketing systems, reservation platforms, and online marketplaces.

Stroot's background is in engineering, microbiology, and molecular biology, and includes a previous stint as faculty at the University of South Florida. He later became interested in coding and taught himself after identifying a way to use his skills to help companies who were unprepared to address AI-driven risks.

At its core, Glixin doesn't replace existing cybersecurity systems, he notes. Instead, it adds a layer of security.

“What I’m doing is different,” he says. “I’m actually evaluating the intent of the transaction. What’s going on here? Does it look legit or not?”

In other words, Stroot is focused on evaluating the purpose behind a digital transaction, whether it involves legitimate user activity, a bot request, fraud, or automated system behavior. Instead of relying only on static signals — flagged IP addresses or known threat signatures — Glixin analyzes patterns across multiple data points, including request structure, timing, metadata, and behavior signals, to determine the intent behind a transaction.

As bots become more sophisticated and increasingly mimic human behavior, Stroot argues this type of layered analysis is becoming essential. From ticket scalping to coordinated system overloads, the impact can be immediate and costly.

“People just sit there and throw their hands up. What are you supposed to do?” Stroot says. “Well, we might be able to help with that.”

He has seen the issue firsthand. While attempting to secure a campsite at Glacier National Park, his family was locked out within moments as automated systems claimed reservations.

“There’s people just messing around with AI and bots and causing havoc, sometimes just to watch a system get overwhelmed,” he says.

Glixin’s platform uses AI to counter the threats bots pose by identifying patterns and distinguishing between human behavior and automated activity, while also being able to catch human errors or fraud. 

“I’m using AI to pick up on what AI is doing,” Stroot says. “It’s going to be an ongoing battle for years.”

Stroot has also engaged in policy discussions, helping draft a response to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, that requested input on AI agents. Stroot's response proposed intent-based evaluation as a commercial solution.

“NIST is realizing we’ve got to do something about AI agents,” he says. "I worked with AI to draft a letter saying, here’s something you could actually do. It’s a commercial product we just developed.”

Beyond security, Glixin's platform also targets inefficiencies in cloud computing. Stroot contends that many cloud-related expenses are derived from processing unnecessary or malicious transactions.

“If I can block that before it even hits something like (Amazon Web Services), that’s immediate savings,” he says. “You’re reducing cost, but you’re also reducing electricity use.”

That combination of cost efficiency and reduced energy use is central to his pitch, particularly for businesses managing large volumes of traffic.

Glixin offers tiered services to appeal to a wide range of businesses, from small operations to large companies handling millions of transactions. Glixin’s pricing reflects its scalability, he notes. 

At its standard service level, called Silver Lane, businesses select tiers based on quarterly transaction volume, ranging from $400 for 1 million transactions to $8,500 for 50 million. Beyond that, Stroot says additional service levels offer different priorities such as faster processing, lower-cost efficiency options, and more advanced security configurations for larger-scale operations.

Alongside his security work, Stroot is developing a wellness-focused application programming interface rooted in his earlier research tied to a blood test patent. He says the concept evolved after realizing similar insights could be delivered through software rather than lab testing.

The wellness API identifies factors related to oxidative stress, which Stroot links to conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis. He says it translates biological data into actionable insights that guide lifestyle changes based on diet hypotheses.

“I’m trying to think of customers from one end to the other,” Stroot says. “What do you need for help, and can I help?”

Looking ahead, he says he plans to expand the platform into both cloud-based and local deployment systems, giving businesses more flexibility and control.

“You don’t want to be completely dependent on one system,” he says. “If something goes down, what are you going to do as a business?”

For now, Stroot is focused on building out the technology before shifting heavily into marketing.

“I love problems,” he says. “The more complicated they are, the better. Those are the ones worth solving.”