Presented by JumpCloud
A practical framework for securing every identity in the modern workforce, human or not.
Your organization likely has a solid process for managing human identities. New employees are onboarded, given specific roles and access rights, and assigned a manager responsible for their access. When they leave, their credentials are revoked. This well-established IT process ensures that every workforce identity that can access your systems is known, scoped, and accountable from entry to exit.
AI agents are now active within these systems as well. They interact with Salesforce, create tickets in Jira, handle financial transactions, and communicate on behalf of your teams. They are essentially members of your workforce, but in many organizations, they were never properly onboarded, lack a designated owner, and have no offboarding process when their purpose ends.
According to JumpCloud’s Q3 2026 research, non-human identities now outnumber human users in 83% of organizations, yet only 21% have implemented governance controls specifically for them. The framework outlined below aims to bridge this gap.
Stage 1: Discover every agent operating in your environment
The first step in governance is creating a comprehensive inventory, as many organizations currently have incomplete records. AI agents are deployed by various teams without IT’s full awareness, leading to “Shadow AI” where agents operate without clear ownership or oversight. Continuously track agents across all environments where they may be active to document their access, workflows, and triggers.
Stage 2: Register every agent as a formal identity with a named owner
Each agent in your environment should be treated as a formal identity in your directory, complete with a defined purpose, authorized actions, and a human owner accountable for its behavior. This architectural decision distinguishes organizations capable of governing their agents from those that cannot.
Stage 3: Manage agent access with least privilege and zero standing credentials
Grant registered agents access based on the principle of least privilege, ensuring they only have permissions necessary for their tasks. Avoid static credentials and implement just-in-time access for privileged operations, along with credential shielding to protect sensitive information.
Stage 4: Govern agent behavior continuously, not just at deployment
Maintain ongoing governance to monitor agent actions, conduct access reviews, and address deviations promptly. Every agent action should be logged, and accountability questions should be answerable through an audit trail.
The foundation underneath all four stages
Executing this framework becomes more challenging in fragmented IT environments. Organizations with unified IT setups are more likely to effectively govern agents in critical workflows. Agentic IAM emphasizes governing humans, devices, and agents through a unified control layer to scale governance alongside AI adoption.
By securing every identity, human or otherwise, organizations can confidently expand AI usage, accelerate workflows, and mitigate risks associated with unmanaged identities.
JumpCloud’s Q3 2026 IT Trends Research report (n=800 IT leaders, US + UK) is available here. The Agentic IAM lifecycle framework referenced in this article was developed by JumpCloud and is available here.
Greg Keller is CTO and Co-founder at JumpCloud.
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