The rise of the ‘digital employee’
The denominator is expanding again as organizations deploy AI-driven automation and agentic systems that act as virtual workers. These are no longer simple scripts. They perform multi-step tasks across financial systems, data platforms and operational tooling.
When an AI agent is tasked with generating financial reports or orchestrating workflows across systems, it inherits broad access. If that agent makes an inappropriate access decision, accountability becomes ambiguous. The original manager approval often applies only at creation, not as scope and behavior evolve.
At the same time, shadow AI usage compounds the problem. Employees frequently use personal credentials to connect unmanaged AI tools to sensitive data sources, creating parallel access paths that never appear in formal identity systems. Identity governance, historically centered on human employees, is now confronted with a growing population of digital actors operating beyond traditional visibility.
