Topic starter
24/06/2026 11:08 pm
TL;DR: Security teams and MSSPs will have to deal with both agentic AI and non-human identities at once in 2026, underscoring that identity governance is now spanning machine credentials and autonomous behaviour, according to Keyfactor. The governance problem is no longer theoretical: access, auditability, and privilege boundaries are being stressed faster than traditional IAM cycles can adapt.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Keyfactor: “Security Teams, MSSPs Will Wrestle with Agentic AI, Non-Human Identities in 2026”.
Key questions
Q: How should security teams govern access across human, NHI, and AI identities?
A: Security teams should govern all three through a shared lifecycle and policy layer, but with different operating rules for each actor type.
Q: Why do traditional access reviews struggle with autonomous identity behaviour?
A: Because traditional reviews assume access remains stable long enough to be observed, assessed, and certified.
Q: What are the biggest governance mistakes teams make with agentic identity?
A: The most common mistakes are assuming the agent can inherit human-style access, letting tokens live too long, and treating integration plumbing as separate from security.
Practitioner guidance
- Map separate governance models for NHIs and agentic systems Document which identities are persistent machine accounts and which are runtime autonomous actors, then assign different review, approval, and evidence requirements to each.
- Reduce standing authority for machine credentials Review service accounts, API keys, and tokens for access that persists beyond the task they support.
- Instrument agent actions for execution-time evidence Capture which tools were selected, what data was touched, and what sequence of actions was taken while the task is running.
Bottom line: Agentic AI and non-human identities are converging into a single governance challenge that combines standing machine credentials with runtime autonomous behaviour.
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This topic was modified 20 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group
25/06/2026 7:52 am
Agentic AI and NHI are converging into one governance problem: the same programme now has to manage persistent machine credentials and runtime autonomous behaviour at the same time. That convergence matters because the control assumptions are different, even when the tooling sits under the same identity umbrella. Practitioners should stop treating this as two separate queues and start treating it as one entitlement-governance surface with different execution modes.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Only 13% of organisations feel extremely prepared for the reality of agentic AI despite the majority racing toward autonomous adoption, according to the 2026 Infrastructure Identity Survey.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should organisations prepare their NHI programmes for Agentic AI adoption?
A: Preparation requires extending existing NHI governance capabilities before agents are deployed at scale. Immediate priorities: securing existing NHIs through hygiene and least privilege enforcement (agents inherit the security posture of the NHI estate they are deployed into), adopting ephemeral credential models, and enforcing Zero Trust principles. Medium-term: extend NHI discovery to handle agent-created identities at machine speed, implement runtime authorisation infrastructure, and establish behavioural monitoring baselines for agent activity before deploying at scale.
👉 Read our full editorial: Security teams will wrestle with agentic AI and NHI in 2026
This post was modified 20 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group