Human vs. Non-Human Identities

Identity Foundations

2 min

Speaker: Logan Saso Staff Software Engineer

Understand how human and non-human identities differ, and why AI agents and tools are dramatically increasing the identity footprint you need to secure.

Main Takeaways

✅
Human identities are the people behind the keyboard like employees and contractors.
✅
Traditional non-human identities were mainly service accounts that run 24-7 and hold credentials and access just like humans.
✅
In modern environments, AI introduces a new class of non-human identity: agents that read data, make decisions, and act through tool calls.
✅
Each AI agent and every tool it interacts with carries its own credentials, leading to identity counts that scale into the thousands even at mid-sized companies.
✅
Managing humans, service accounts, and AI agents together is essential to keeping an organization secure.

Learn More

Managing Non-Human Identity Risk in 2025

In 2025, non-human identities from service accounts to AI agents have become the fastest-growing and most urgent identity risk, forcing security teams to rethink access governance at scale. Learn more from our 2025 FIS report.

From Manual to Intelligent: Using AI to Mature Your IGA Program

See how AI can mature your identity governance and administration (IGA) program. ConductorOne’s AI agent Thomas automates approvals, access reviews, and policy enforcement, while Copilot, an interactive assistant, streamlines workflows, surfaces risk insights, and guides smarter decisions. Scale governance for human and non-human identities, reduce IT overhead, and enforce least privilege at enterprise scale.

The AI Identity Problem

AI agents are changing the identity landscape, but legacy IAM systems weren’t built for them. These fast-moving, ephemeral identities require dynamic access, machine-speed decisions, and a new model of governance. In this post, we break down the AI identity problem—and what it takes to solve it.