diff --git a/guardrails_api/api/guards.py b/guardrails_api/api/guards.py
index afdd206..a9f70d6 100644
--- a/guardrails_api/api/guards.py
+++ b/guardrails_api/api/guards.py
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ async def openai_v1_chat_completions(guard_name: str, request: Request):
         )
 
     guard = (
-        Guard.from_dict(guard_struct.to_dict())
+        AsyncGuard.from_dict(guard_struct.to_dict())
         if not isinstance(guard_struct, Guard)
         else guard_struct
     )
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ async def openai_v1_chat_completions(guard_name: str, request: Request):
     )
 
     if not stream:
-        validation_outcome: ValidationOutcome = guard(num_reasks=0, **payload)
+        validation_outcome: ValidationOutcome = await guard(num_reasks=0, **payload)
         llm_response = guard.history.last.iterations.last.outputs.llm_response_info
         result = outcome_to_chat_completion(
             validation_outcome=validation_outcome,
@@ -136,8 +136,8 @@ async def openai_v1_chat_completions(guard_name: str, request: Request):
     else:
 
         async def openai_streamer():
-            guard_stream = guard(num_reasks=0, **payload)
-            for result in guard_stream:
+            guard_stream = await guard(num_reasks=0, **payload)
+            async for result in guard_stream:
                 chunk = json.dumps(
                     outcome_to_stream_response(validation_outcome=result)
                 )
@@ -253,22 +253,18 @@ async def validate_streamer(guard_iter):
                 validate_streamer(guard_streamer()), media_type="application/json"
             )
         else:
-            if inspect.iscoroutinefunction(guard):
-                result: ValidationOutcome = await guard(
-                    llm_api=llm_api,
-                    prompt_params=prompt_params,
-                    num_reasks=num_reasks,
-                    *args,
-                    **payload,
-                )
+            execution = guard(
+                llm_api=llm_api,
+                prompt_params=prompt_params,
+                num_reasks=num_reasks,
+                *args,
+                **payload,
+            )
+
+            if inspect.iscoroutine(execution):
+                result: ValidationOutcome = await execution
             else:
-                result: ValidationOutcome = guard(
-                    llm_api=llm_api,
-                    prompt_params=prompt_params,
-                    num_reasks=num_reasks,
-                    *args,
-                    **payload,
-                )
+                result: ValidationOutcome = execution
 
     serialized_history = [call.to_dict() for call in guard.history]
     cache_key = f"{guard.name}-{result.call_id}"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 2520656..a46ef14 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ readme = "README.md"
 keywords = ["Guardrails", "Guardrails AI", "Guardrails API", "Guardrails API"]
 requires-python = ">= 3.8.1"
 dependencies = [
-    "guardrails-ai>=0.5.10",
+    "guardrails-ai>=0.5.12",
     "jsonschema>=4.22.0,<5",
     "referencing>=0.35.1,<1",
     "boto3>=1.34.115,<2",
diff --git a/tests/api/test_guards.py b/tests/api/test_guards.py
index 453a976..416baf0 100644
--- a/tests/api/test_guards.py
+++ b/tests/api/test_guards.py
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@
 from tests.mocks.mock_guard_client import MockGuardStruct
 from guardrails_api.api.guards import router as guards_router
 
+
+import asyncio
+
 # TODO: Should we mock this somehow?
 #   Right now it's just empty, but it technically does a file read
 register_config()
@@ -344,7 +347,9 @@ def test_openai_v1_chat_completions__call(mocker):
     )
 
     mock___call__ = mocker.patch.object(MockGuardStruct, "__call__")
-    mock___call__.return_value = mock_outcome
+    future = asyncio.Future()
+    future.set_result(mock_outcome)
+    mock___call__.return_value = future
 
     mock_from_dict = mocker.patch("guardrails_api.api.guards.Guard.from_dict")
     mock_from_dict.return_value = mock_guard