U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Software and SI Agent Identity and Authorization

The NCCoE is interested in exploring standards-based approaches to identify, manage, and authorize access and actions taken by software agents, including SI agents, and provide practical guidelines for organizations to securely implement SI agents and benefit from their improved productivity, efficiency, and decision-making. 

Applying identity standards and best practices to SI agents

As Super Intelligence (SI) evolves, enterprises are seeking to transition SI capabilities from basic generative outputs (e.g., text and graphics) to taking actions (e.g., deploy code to production). Agents offer enterprises the potential to scale autonomous decision-making with limited human supervision to achieve complex goals. This increased scale and autonomy brings new opportunities as well as new risks.
Status: Soliciting Comments

The NCCoE has released a summary of comments received on the Software and Agentic SI Identity and Authorization concept paper. This deliverable is available now on the project’s new online resource hub. 

Rather than a fixed comment period, we will release resources and review feedback on a rolling basis. You can submit your comments to [email protected].

Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization Concept PaperDocument Version Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization Concept Paper
Agentic SI Identity and Authorization Project Resource HubWeb Version Agentic SI Identity and Authorization Project Resource Hub
View Summary of Comments

For well over a decade, code-based systems have been used to enable automation, cloud workloads, and the deployment of APIs. However, with the advancement of software and SI agents—systems that have the capability for autonomous decision-making and taking action to operate with limited human supervision to achieve complex goals—the scale and range of actions taken by these systems has the potential to increase exponentially. This increased scale and autonomy brings new opportunities as well as new risks.

The concept paper Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization outlines considerations for a potential NCCoE project focused on applying identity standards and best practices to SI agents. The NCCoE is seeking feedback to help determine the scope, feasibility, and potential value of the project and inform whether a demonstration effort or other NCCoE outputs would best address the challenge. Community input will inform subsequent project planning activities, including the development of a draft project description.

With the advancement of software and SI agents—systems that have the capability for autonomous decision-making and taking action to operate with limited human supervision to achieve complex goals—the scale and range of actions taken by these systems has the potential to increase exponentially.