OAuth Works for AI Agents but Scaling is Another Question
Feb 27, 2025
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Maya Kaczorowski, a respected technologist and founder of Oblique, dives into the intersection of OAuth, AI agents, and identity management. She reveals how developers perceive AI agents as extensions of themselves, thus relying on OAuth for secure access. Kaczorowski highlights the growing challenges in managing vast numbers of AI identities, emphasizing the need for scalable solutions. The discussion addresses the complexities of integrating AI with SaaS, the balance of AI autonomy versus security safeguards, and ongoing evolution in access control methods.
OAuth effectively manages AI agent identity by allowing users to delegate specific permissions, ensuring agents access only necessary data.
The rapid growth of AI agents necessitates innovative authorization frameworks that can efficiently scale beyond traditional models and maintain security.
Deep dives
Understanding AI Agent Identity with OAuth
OAuth presents a significant solution for managing AI agent identity by allowing users to delegate specific permissions to their AI tools. This approach maintains the principle of least privilege, granting agents access only to the data they need to function effectively, such as when integrating AI capabilities with existing SaaS applications. For example, a user can choose to allow an AI agent access to certain documents or calendar events without compromising the entirety of their data. This thoughtful delegation of permissions through OAuth not only addresses privacy concerns but also facilitates the seamless operation of AI agents in various contexts.
Challenges and Limitations of Current Authorization Systems
Despite the advantages of OAuth for managing AI agent permissions, significant challenges remain in its implementation across different applications. Many SaaS providers have yet to fully integrate OAuth, which risks creating complications and inconsistencies in how AI agents function within those environments. Moreover, issues like long-lived OAuth tokens and the difficulty of multi-factor authentication for headless agents highlight gaps that still need to be addressed. Consequently, the evolving landscape of AI integration demands a more refined approach to authorization that properly accommodates these complexities.
The Future of Authorization in an AI-Driven World
The anticipated growth in the number of AI agents presents a need for robust authorization frameworks capable of scaling efficiently. Traditional authorization models may struggle to accommodate the rapid increase in agents, especially as organizations might face scenarios with more agents than human users. This growth will necessitate innovative solutions that adapt to new operational realities while ensuring security remains a priority. As companies begin to explore and implement AI, the development of agent-friendly authorization layers will be critical to maintaining safe and effective operational environments.
Maya Kaczorowski noticed that AI identity and AI agent identity concerns were emerging from outside the security industry, rather than from CISOs and security leaders. She concluded that OAuth, the open standard for authentication, already serves the purpose of granting access without exposing passwords.
Kaczorowski, a respected technologist and founder of Oblique, a startup focused on self-serve access controls, recently wrote about OAuth and AI agents and shared her insights on this episode of The New Stack Makers. She noted that developers see AI agents as extensions of themselves, granting them limited access to data and capabilities—precisely what OAuth is designed to handle.
The challenges with AI agent identity are vast, involving different approaches to authentication, such as those explored by companies like AuthZed. While existing authorization models like RBAC or ABAC may still apply, the real challenge lies in scale. The exponential growth of AI-related entities—from users to LLMs—could mean even small organizations manage hundreds of thousands of agents. Future solutions must accommodate this massive scale efficiently.
For the full discussion, check out The New Stack Makers interview with Kaczorowski.
Learn more from The New Stack about OAuth requirements for AI Agents: