Versatile AI Risk Assessment

Glossary Governance and evidence

Non-human identity (NHI)

Technical identities for services, applications and agents, such as a service account assigned to an AI agent.

As of: September 2026 · Glossary with 28 terms

What is Non-human identity (NHI)?

Non-human identities are technical identities for services, applications and agents. For example, a service account may be assigned to an AI agent. Keys, certificates or tokens are used to authenticate the identity to other systems.

For AI systems this is a risk surface of its own. An agent needs permissions in order to act, and often keeps them longer than necessary. Clarify ownership, validity period, scope of permissions and the path to revocation. Without an inventory, no one can say after an incident what the agent was even allowed to do.

Access controlLeast PrivilegeAgentic

More terms from the subject area Governance and evidence.

DPIA threshold analysis Screening under Art. 35 GDPR: does the processing need a full impact assessment? EU AI Act risk classes Classification of AI systems by risk, from prohibited practices to minimal risk. TOMs: technical and organisational measures Technical and organisational safeguards under Art. 32 GDPR, appropriate to the risk.

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“Non-human identity (NHI)”. Versatile AI Risk Assessment, glossary of AI risk analysis, as of September 2026.
https://www.versatile-ai-risk-assessment.com/en/wissensbasis/glossary/nhi/

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