Everyone watches the model race. Almost nobody watches the identity race. But models are increasingly commoditized. Identity infrastructure is not.
Each agent needs an identity with explicit permissions, audit trails, and compliance boundaries. This sounds like plumbing. It’s actually the strategic chokepoint for regulated enterprise adoption. In five years, this may be the stickiest layer in the entire stack.
What Agent IAM Actually Looks Like
Every agent gets an “employee ID.” In practice, this means:
Identity: Agent ID, type, owner, creation date, status — SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, CSA STAR compliant
Scoped Permissions: Exactly which systems each agent can access, at what level, under what constraints
Audit Trails: Every action logged, attributed, traceable. Regulators can inspect any agent’s history
Compliance Boundaries: Hard limits enforced by infrastructure, not by prompt instruction
Human-in-the-Loop Gates: Which actions require human approval before execution
The Active Directory Parallel
Microsoft didn’t win the enterprise PC market by making the best word processor. It won by controlling identity — the layer that determined who could access what.
1990s-2000s Active Directory: Controlled who could log in to what. Once embedded into compliance and security infrastructure, switching became nearly impossible for decades. It wasn’t the best technology — it was the most embedded.
2026+ Agent IAM: Controls which agent can act on what. Once enterprises provision hundreds of agent identities with compliance approvals, audit trails, and regulatory validation — switching is years of work.
Where Switching Costs Are Astronomical
In regulated industries, agent IAM becomes as sticky as Active Directory was:
Financial Services: SOX compliance on every action. SEC audit trails required. Switching means re-certifying every agent against every regulation. Timeline: 2-4 years.
Healthcare: HIPAA compliance on all PHI access. FDA validation for clinical agents. Switching means re-validating every agent’s clinical permissions. Timeline: 3-5 years.
Government: FedRAMP authorization required. Classified data handling protocols. Switching means new FedRAMP auth + full re-accreditation. Timeline: 3-7 years.
Pharmaceuticals: GxP validation on R&D agents. Clinical trial data integrity. Switching means re-validating every agent in GxP-regulated workflows. Timeline: 4-5 years.
This tier is underpriced in current market narratives because it’s less visible than flashy orchestration capabilities. But the companies building it now are laying foundations that will lock in enterprises for decades.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
