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Types of AI Agents

Paul Querna·CTO, Co-founder C1·4 min

Learn about the three primary types of AI agents—company agents, personal agents, and SaaS-based agents—and how each impacts identity security, access control, and enterprise risk.

Main Takeaways

  • Company agents act like digital employees, aligned to job roles and requiring structured access similar to human team members.
  • Personal agents assist individuals with productivity tasks and typically need limited, short-term access to complete specific jobs.
  • SaaS-based agents are built into third-party tools and often operate autonomously, moving data between systems.
  • All types of agents increase the total number of identities organizations must manage and secure.
  • Managing agent access requires task-based authorization and tighter controls to avoid overprovisioning.
  • As AI agents proliferate, identity governance must evolve to handle their scale, context, and security boundaries.