Microsoft Entra Agent ID gives AI agents their own managed identity instead of letting them run under shared service accounts.
What is Microsoft Entra Agent ID?
Microsoft Entra Agent ID is an identity and security framework that extends Microsoft Entra capabilities to AI agents. As organizations deploy assistive, autonomous, and user-like agents, they need purpose-built identity constructs to authenticate, authorize, govern, and protect these non-human identities. Agent ID addresses this by providing a unified platform for managing agent identities at enterprise scale.
The core is the agent identity platform. Developers use it to create and manage agent identities - specialized identity constructs built for AI agents. Agent identity blueprints serve as templates for creating individual agent identities with parent-child relationships, enabling consistent security policies across large numbers of agents.
Per Microsoft, Agent ID is available for all Microsoft Entra customers. Extending Entra security features to agents requires Microsoft Agent 365.
Core Features
- Agent identities: purpose-built identity constructs for AI agents instead of shared service accounts
- Agent identity blueprints: templates with parent-child relationships for consistent policies across many agent instances
- Standard protocols: OAuth 2.0, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and agent-to-agent (A2A)
- Platform independence: works with agents built on Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms
- Third-party agent integration: via the Microsoft Entra ID Auth SDK (sidecar) or workload identity federation, for example for AWS Bedrock and n8n
- Security and governance for agents: adaptive access policies, real-time risk detection, lifecycle management, and network-level controls
- Logging: all agent authentication and activity is logged for compliance and audit
Typical Use Cases
Governance across agent estates
Organizations already running several agents in production gain a central view, avoiding agent sprawl and shadow AI.
Consistent policies across agent classes
Blueprints let you define policies, permissions, and governance controls once; all current and future instances inherit them automatically.
Heterogeneous agent landscapes
Agents from different platforms, including third-party ones, receive a consistently governed identity in Microsoft Entra.
Audit and compliance
Sign-in and audit logs for agents provide the evidence that is otherwise missing for non-human actors.
Securing agentic access
Conditional Access and Identity Protection apply to agents just as they do to users and workloads.
Benefits
- Dedicated identities for agents instead of shared service accounts
- Scalable policy enforcement through blueprints rather than per-instance configuration
- Open standards with OAuth 2.0, MCP, and A2A
- Coverage for agents outside the Microsoft ecosystem as well
- End-to-end logging for compliance and audit
Integration with innFactory
As an indirect Microsoft CSP partner, innFactory helps you structure agent identities cleanly from the start: blueprint design, permission assignment, integrating existing agents, and clarifying which capabilities require a Microsoft Agent 365 license.
Where agents access regulated data, we place the result within your compliance framework; for organizations bound by professional secrecy, our article on section 203 of the German Criminal Code in the public cloud provides the basis.
Contact us for a no-obligation consultation on identity and governance for AI agents.
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Microsoft Entra Agent ID available to all customers?
Microsoft states in the documentation: "Agent ID is available for all Microsoft Entra customers." Agent ID is a product within Microsoft Entra that provides the platform for creating and managing agent identities and agent identity blueprints.
What is an agent identity blueprint?
Agent identity blueprints serve as templates for creating individual agent identities with parent-child relationships. They enable consistent security policies across large numbers of agents: policies, permissions, and governance controls are defined once and inherited by all current and future agent instances.
Which protocols does the agent identity platform support?
Microsoft names OAuth 2.0, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and agent-to-agent (A2A) for authentication and agent-to-agent communication.
Does Agent ID work with third-party agents?
Yes. Microsoft Entra Agent ID works with agents built on Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms. Organizations can integrate third-party agents from platforms such as AWS Bedrock and n8n by using the Microsoft Entra ID Auth SDK (sidecar) or workload identity federation, giving every agent a governed identity regardless of where it was built.
When is Microsoft Agent 365 required?
Microsoft states that extending Microsoft Entra security features to agents requires Microsoft Agent 365. Microsoft Agent 365 enables agents to operate across Microsoft 365 services and enterprise workflows and requires a Microsoft Agent 365 license for each user. Agent 365 is included with Microsoft 365 E7 and available as an add-on to Microsoft E5, A5, and Business Premium.
Which security and governance capabilities apply to agents?
Microsoft Entra Agent ID extends existing Entra security and governance capabilities to agent identities. Agents receive the same identity-driven protections as users and workloads, including adaptive access policies, real-time risk detection, lifecycle management, and network-level controls. All agent authentication and activity is logged for compliance and audit.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Azure (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Azure.
