CMO, Meet Your New Workforce: Governing Human And Non-Human Identity

"The most transformative change in marketing isn't a new channel or a shiny tool; it's a new workforce. Agentic AI-bots, services and automations that can plan, decide and execute-now works alongside people across content, media, commerce and customer operations. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2026, 40% of enterprise apps will feature task-specific AI agents. This shift creates extraordinary opportunity, and it also imposes responsibility: CMOs must govern identity and access with the identical rigor we apply to brand voice and financial approvals."

"Agentic AI is not a helper that waits for prompts. Agents can publish creative variants, adjust bids, modify product feeds, open tickets and update customer profiles. They can make thousands of micro-decisions faster than any human team member. Without provenance and arbitration, those micro-decisions become invisible and unaccountable. Without strong identity, scope and provenance, speed becomes fragility. With it, CMOs can compress cycle time, reduce errors and scale personalization with confidence. Governance must be embedded before you scale."

"Who or what can speak in your name, and to whom, defines brand experience and risk. Nearly 90% of breaches involve compromised credentials, and that includes non-human identities. Identity and access governance isn't just "MFA for marketing tools." It's the control plane for permissions, consent and accountability. If an agent can push content to millions, approve a discount or alter a data model, its entitlements are brand controls. Treat them as such: minimum necessary scope, clear owners and time-boxed privileges, with evidence on demand."

Agentic AI bots, services and automations that can plan, decide and execute now work alongside people across content, media, commerce and customer operations. These agents can make thousands of micro-decisions rapidly, publishing creative variants, adjusting bids, modifying product feeds, opening tickets and updating customer profiles. Unmanaged micro-decisions become invisible and unaccountable, creating risk. Identity, access, scope and provenance must be governed with the same rigor as brand voice and financial approvals. Entitlements for non-human identities require minimum necessary scope, clear ownership, time-boxed privileges and audit evidence. A unified knowledge graph and identity digital twin can consolidate fragmented rights, consent and entitlements.

Read at Forbes