ServiceNow AI passports gives AI agents an identity that travels with them
When I was at SailPoint Navigate earlier this month I learned a lot about the importance of identity in controlling agents. Agents have the unique ability to take on different identities as they move through a complex process and encounter other systems and agents, each with a different set of permission requirements.
ServiceNow announced a new tool last week to help called AI Passport that could work with SailPoint or any other identity vendor (or governance or enforcement mechanism for that matter). As the name implies the agent's identity and permissions travel with it in something akin to a passport. As it crosses system borders or accesses other agents, it presents its digital credentials enabling it to pass or not (at least in theory).
But AI Passport doesn't simply verify credentials. It's designed to actually restrict, redirect or terminate agents when they exceed their authorized permissions, which should please wary security and governance folks who could be worried about whether agents are operating beyond their purview.
AI Passport works in conjunction with ServiceNow's AI Control Tower, which issues the credentials and maintains an audit trail of agent activity.
While Workday and Egnyte focus primarily on governing agents within their respective ecosystems, including third-party agents, ServiceNow is taking a broader approach. Its new AI Passport is based on open specifications and is designed to govern agents across the enterprise, regardless of whether they're connected to ServiceNow.
Whether this will all work as described will have to wait, however, because the company has indicated it won't be available until sometime in the fourth quarter this year.
Disclosure: SailPoint paid me to produce a sponsored video at its Navigate conference last week. The company had no input into this article.
__
This story first ran in FastForward #83: My adventures in AI, my Friday newsletter for enterprise tech leaders.
Want stories like this in your inbox every week? Subscribe to FastForward.
