By 2026, enterprises are rapidly deploying advanced AI agents that act more autonomously than ever before. These agents operate at incredible speeds and handle complex tasks, making security a major challenge. Traditional tools designed to manage human identities or simple machine logins aren’t enough anymore. As the number of these AI agents grows — including many that organizations don’t even know about — companies face the risk of security gaps that could cause big problems later.

Why Traditional Security Falls Short for AI Agents

Most existing identity and access management (IAM) systems are built around the idea that applications are accessed by humans or straightforward machine identities. These systems rely on a one-time login process to authenticate users or devices. But AI agents don’t follow these simple patterns. They perform long chains of quick actions, making their access unpredictable and hard to control.

If companies tighten security too much, AI agents might stop functioning. But if they’re left too loose, security vulnerabilities can emerge. This balancing act is difficult, and traditional IAM tools struggle to keep up with the fast-paced, dynamic nature of AI agents. That’s why a new approach is needed to handle their unique security needs.

Curity’s Innovative Approach to Securing AI Agents

Curity, a smaller player in the IAM space from Sweden, believes that AI agents can’t be secured using old methods. Instead, they treat agents like special applications that call APIs and interact with servers. Curity’s platform uses OAuth tokens not just to grant access, but to carry detailed information about the agent’s purpose and current intent. This allows the system to make smarter decisions about what an agent can do at any moment.

Through a feature called Token Intelligence, each token describes the specific action an agent is trying to perform. When an agent starts a new task, it needs a fresh token with the right permissions. If a high-risk operation is involved, like transferring money, human approval can be required. This way, access is granted dynamically, on the fly, rather than relying on static permissions set in advance.

Curity’s cofounder and CTO, Jacob Ideskog, explains that their focus has always been on how to control access effectively. Their approach is application-centric, which means they think about how agents and applications broker access rather than just blocking or watching traffic passively. This method aims to reduce security gaps while keeping AI agents functional and efficient.

Different Strategies for Securing AI Agents Today

Right now, organizations use a mix of security methods to protect AI agents. Some rely on inline tools like API gateways and web application firewalls, but these often aren’t enough for complex AI workflows. Others use out-of-band systems that analyze behavior after the fact to infer what an agent was trying to do. While helpful, these methods can be slow or insufficient for real-time security needs.

As AI agents become more common and more powerful, the need for smarter, more adaptable security solutions grows. Curity’s approach aims to fill this gap by offering real-time, context-aware control that adapts to what an agent is doing. This method reduces the chances of security breaches while allowing AI to operate at full speed.

With innovations like runtime authorization and detailed token management, companies can better secure their AI agents without hindering their performance. This new way of managing access could shape the future of enterprise security in a world increasingly driven by autonomous AI systems.

Inspired by

• https://www.computerworld.com/article/4158890/curity-looks-to-reinvent-iam-with-runtime-authorization-for-ai-agents-3.html

Sources

• curity.io
• csoonline.com