Entrust has introduced the Agentic AI Trust Accelerator, a collaborative initiative designed to advance the development of identity and trust infrastructure crucial for transitioning autonomous AI projects from pilot stages to full-scale implementation. The program focuses on addressing the need for robust governance systems that can securely manage and verify AI agent actions within enterprise environments.
Urgency in AI Governance
A recent study highlights that adoption of AI technologies is moving faster than organizational governance capabilities, with 77% of CIOs and CISOs acknowledging this challenge. Moreover, security and compliance concerns are significant barriers, as noted by 59% of respondents.
Deloitte also emphasizes the crucial need for comprehensive AI agent governance, underscoring the necessity for enhanced accountability and trust mechanisms in enterprises. “AI agents are advancing faster than the trust infrastructure needed to govern them,” stated Anudeep Parhar, Entrust COO for digital infrastructure.
Innovative Solutions for Trust
This program leverages Entrust's established proficiency in identity and cryptography
The Agentic AI Trust Accelerator aims to create practical solutions for identity, authorization, cryptographic trust, and accountability, working seamlessly with existing platforms. This program leverages Entrust's established proficiency in identity and cryptography to establish secure, trustworthy workflows for AI agents across diverse systems and organizational boundaries.
Enterprises particularly in regulated sectors require cryptographic identity verification and action tracking that integrate with platform or policy controls. By providing reference architectures and validated use cases, the Accelerator is set to bridge this gap.
“As agentic AI becomes embedded in enterprise operations, governance is evolving from a point-in-time exercise to a continuous discipline. Organizations need more than static controls; they need continuous verification throughout the agent lifecycle,” emphasized Emanuel Figueroa, Senior Research Analyst at IDC.
Focus Areas for Compliance
The initial phase of the Acceleration program targets key areas crucial for regulated environments:
- Identity: Establishing verifiable human and agent identities to ensure traceability of agent actions.
- Authorization: Ensuring agents perform actions within pre-defined, approved roles with necessary human oversight.
- Cryptographic Trust: Providing cryptographic assurance to safeguard critical credentials used by AI agents.
- Accountability: Creating cryptographically verifiable records to satisfy regulatory and internal requirements.
Shaping the Future with Agentic AI
According to Tony Ball, CEO of Entrust, "Agentic AI will reshape how enterprises operate, but trust will determine how quickly organizations can move from experimentation to production." The Accelerator will initially collaborate with select enterprise customers, financial institutions, technology partners, and other industry participants to develop and implement trusted AI architectures.
Entrust, a global pioneer in identity-centric security solutions, announces the Agentic AI Trust Accelerator, a co-development program that will bring together enterprises and integration partners to build the identity and trust infrastructure needed to move autonomous AI projects from pilot to production.
Enterprises want to deploy AI agents to do real work, but they lack the trust infrastructure needed to govern autonomous actions across systems, partners, and business processes. Organizations need to know who authorized an agent, what it is allowed to do, and how its actions can be proven after the fact.
Strong AI agent governance
The need is urgent: 77% of CIOs and CISOs say AI adoption is already outpacing governance capabilities, and 59% cite security and compliance as top barriers to deployment, according to an IBM study. Deloitte has also emphasized that the shift to “human on the loop” is a form of automation that requires strong AI agent governance and oversight. This underscores the broader enterprise need for stronger governance, accountability, and trust controls.
“AI agents are advancing faster than the trust infrastructure needed to govern them,” said Anudeep Parhar, Entrust COO for digital infrastructure who is leading the Accelerator.
Developing practical approaches
“Enterprises need to be able to trust autonomous actions across business processes, partners, and systems. Whether organizations are experimenting with AI agents, deploying initial use cases, or preparing for broader adoption, they need a trust foundation that can scale with them. The Agentic AI Trust Accelerator brings together customers and partners to develop practical approaches for identity, authorization, cryptographic trust, and accountability that work with their existing platforms. We call this the trust plane for autonomous AI.”
The Accelerator Program builds on the company’s deep expertise in identity and cryptographic security to help enterprises take on the challenge of AI agents operating with trust in real-world workflows. Entrust capabilities in identity verification, cryptographic identity, and lifecycle management for keys, certificates, and secrets are fundamental to extending trust and governance for autonomous agents acting across applications, systems, and organizational boundaries.
Cryptographically verifiable identity
Enterprises need cryptographically verifiable identity and proof of action that can travel across systems, partners, and workflows to complement platform- or policy-driven controls – particularly in regulated sectors. The Entrust Agentic AI Trust Accelerator will help enterprises close that gap with reference architectures, customer-validated use cases, and practical controls for identity, authorization, and accountability.
“As agentic AI becomes embedded in enterprise operations, governance is evolving from a point-in-time exercise to a continuous discipline. While AI agents increasingly perform tasks traditionally associated with human workers, their autonomy introduces new challenges for oversight, accountability, and risk management. Organizations therefore need more than static controls; they need continuous verification throughout the agent lifecycle. The goal is not simply to control AI agents, but to operate with confidence that they are appropriately authorized, governed, and acting within established business, security, and regulatory boundaries," said Emanuel Figueroa, Senior Research Analyst, Identity Security, Worldwide, IDC.
Compliance-driven environments
Initial work with the Accelerator program will focus on four areas of importance to workflows in regulated and compliance-driven environments:
- Identity – verifiable human and agent identity, so that every agent action can be traced back to a confirmed human principal and unique agent
- Authorization – real-time authorization, so agents act only within approved policies, roles, and delegated authority, with a "human in the loop" for critical decisions
- Cryptographic Trust – cryptographic assurance for agent operations, protecting the keys, certificates, and secrets, and signing capabilities agents use to authenticate and transact securely
- Accountability – proof of action, a cryptographically verifiable record for regulators, customers, and internal risk teams
Agentic AI architectures
“Agentic AI will reshape how enterprises operate, but trust will determine how quickly organizations can move from experimentation to production,” said Tony Ball, CEO of Entrust. “Entrust is helping customers build the identity, authorization, and cryptographic foundations required for autonomous systems operating in real-world environments.”
Entrust is opening the Accelerator to a limited number of select enterprise customers, financial institutions, cloud and SaaS providers, systems integrators, and other technology partners interested in co-developing trusted agentic AI architectures.
