;)
In my last posting, (Part 1), I talked about the explosive growth in generative AI and unmanaged Agent IDs that has rapidly expanded into autonomous Agent AI and Agentic use-cases. So, in this posting, let’s explore why OAuth falls short, let’s look at Agent taxonomy, Security Challenges, and Insights that can help.
Why OAuth Falls Short
Traditional OAuth Flow
OAuth was designed for user-initiated delegation (e.g., “sign in with X”). It assumes:
- A present user (making a decision)
- Static consent (narrow, short-lived delegation)
- Limited scope and lifespan of tokens
- No autonomy
But agents operate without prompting, and their scope, actions, and consequences are vastly different. Token sprawl, over-permissioning, and lack of traceability become existential risks.
Agent Taxonomy
To understand how IAM must adapt, we can classify agents along several orthogonal axes:
| Axis | Category Examples |
| Ownership | • Human-Delegated Agents – Operate using an end-user’s credentials to schedule meetings, triage emails, or draft proposals. • Application-Bound Agents – Run under service-account identities for batch processing, data ingestion, or API integration. |
| Impersonation Capability | • Impersonation Agents – Adopt virtual personas to communicate externally (e.g., customer-facing chatbots that mimic brand tone). • Non-Impersonation Agents – Remain clearly identified by their agent identity. |
| Lifecycle | • Ephemeral Agents – Spawned for one-off tasks (e.g., document summarization). • Persistent Agents – Maintain state and learn over weeks/months (e.g., personal productivity assistants). |
| Trust Boundary | • Authorized Agents – Fully vetted, with formal Azure AD registration and scopes. • Untrusted/Sandboxed Agents – Execute in constrained environments with limited privileges. |
| Function Domain | • Infrastructure Agents – Manage cloud resources, CI/CD pipelines, autoscaling. • Third-Party Agents – Provided by external vendors, often black-box services with delegated access. |
Agent-Centric Scenarios Break This Model
- Multi-hop delegation: Agent A triggers Agent B
- Always-on access: No session or manual approval
- Contextual needs: Access may depend on time, risk, or task
- Agent ID: A managed identity construct for AI agents, with lifecycle, policy enforcement, and auditability.
- Continuous Access Evaluation: Enforces access dynamically based on context (risk, location, device).
- Policy-driven governance: Entra Conditional Access applies to agents like users or workloads.
Microsoft’s Direction: Identity-Bound Tokens & Agent ID
- Microsoft has introduced Agent ID, a unique, auditable identity construct within Microsoft Entra that enables:
- Persistent identity for agents
- Delegation tracking across actions
- Conditional Access enforcement in real time
- Governance and revocation at scale
Security, Compliance, and Governance Risks
| Risk Area | Agentic AI Impact | Governance Need |
| Identity Sprawl | Untracked creation of agent credentials | Centralized lifecycle management |
| Least Privilege Violation | Agents often are over-provisioned | Role-based access & scoping |
| Data Loss | Agents accessing unauthorized or sensitive data | Fine-grained data access policies |
| Lack of Visibility | No audit trail or clarity on agent action provenance | Full telemetry and auditability |
| Compliance Exposure | Unexplainable decisions made by agents | Explainable AI and policy frameworks |
| Domain | Emerging Risk | Governance Response |
| Identity Lifecycle | Ad hoc, untracked agent creation | Managed Agent IDs with lifecycle controls |
| Access & Privilege | Agents granted broad, persistent access | Role- and context-based Conditional Access |
| Accountability | No audit trail or provenance | Delegation logs and telemetry integration |
| Compliance & Privacy | Unexplainable data access or decision-making | Explainable AI principles and policy enforcement |
| Threat Detection | Malicious or hijacked agents operating invisibly | Agent-aware SIEM integration and monitoring |
At Quisitive, we believe identity and situationally embracing the zero-trust discipline are at the foundation for responsible AI. We help organizations build an AI governance layer that enables innovation without sacrificing trust, security, or compliance.
Strategic Advisory: AI Identity & Risk Posture Assessment
- Agentic Readiness Maturity Model
- Stakeholder workshops: Legal, IT, Security, Dev
- Strategic Consulting to facilitate the “drawing out” and documentation for the actual business requirements and parameters for AI and Agentic use cases.
- Inventory of automation, AI tools, and emerging agent use cases
- Gap analysis against NIST AI RMF, MITRE-ATLAS, Zero Trust, and Entra
Identity Architecture for AI Agents
- Design agent identities using Microsoft Entra Agent ID
- Define agent personas: interactive agents, backend agents, composite agents
- OAuth + Conditional Access + CAE integration
- Design for verifiable, delegatable trust
Policy & Governance Frameworks
- Lifecycle governance: creation, expiration, deactivation of Agent IDs
- Define & enforce Conditional Access for agents
- Data loss prevention aligned to agent actions
- Design traceable delegation chains
Platform & Integration Services
- Implement Agent ID within Microsoft Entra and Azure AD
- Integrate with Copilot, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Azure OpenAI
- Establish telemetry pipelines for agent behavior auditing (Sentinel, Defender for Cloud Apps)
- Build secure agent architectures in line with Zero Trust
- Start with Governance-by-Design
Treat AI agents as privileged actors. Bake governance and auditability into their identities from day one. - Adopt Agent ID as a Standard
Microsoft Entra’s Agent ID is the most promising construct for enterprise-ready agent identity. Adopt it early. - Implement Delegation Frameworks
Define how human-to-agent and agent-to-agent delegation will work securely in your organization.
- Partner Strategically
This is a cross-domain challenge. Quisitive can help customers develop their strategy and pragmatic approach to navigate security, compliance, identity, and innovation at enterprise scale.
AI Agents are not coming. They’re already here.
Without proactive identity, security, and governance, they introduce unbounded risk. But with the right foundation, enterprises can unlock their power safely and at scale.
Quisitive’s integrated approach, spanning strategy, architecture, and implementation, can help customers embrace agentic AI confidently and compliantly.
