Service Account
A service account is a non-human identity used by applications, services, or automated processes to authenticate and interact with other systems. Unlike user accounts, service accounts are not tied to individual people and typically use API keys, certificates, or OAuth client credentials for authentication.
Why It Matters
Service accounts are the legacy NHI that AI agents are evolving beyond. A traditional service account runs the same operations predictably and repeatedly: a CI/CD pipeline, a monitoring agent, a scheduled data sync. Its behavior is deterministic and its access needs are stable.
AI agents differ from service accounts in three ways: they act on delegated human authority (not their own), their actions are non-deterministic (different prompts produce different behavior), and they chain together multiple system accesses in pursuit of a goal (not a fixed sequence).
Organizations that attempt to govern AI agents using service account management tools will find gaps in per-action control, session scoping, and behavioral monitoring. Service account tools manage credentials; agent governance manages actions.