Concerns have been mounting about the growing access consumers grant to AI agents, and security services are now working to keep pace. On Thursday, password manager 1Password introduced a new tool that lets users permit agents to log into their personal accounts on their behalf—without the agent ever gaining access to the user's credentials. The platform, called 1Password for Agents, achieves this through a communication system linking the agent, the user, and the password manager. When an agent tries to log in for a user, a unique digital key is sent to 1Password to verify the agent's digital identity. The user then receives an alert about the login attempt and can confirm the request personally. 1Password subsequently signs in the agent, filling in the credentials on the digital assistant's behalf so it can log in and complete the task at hand.

1Password for Agents lets users pick their preferred agent—whether that's Claude Duet from Anthropic, OpenAI's Dots or ChatGPT Work, Grok Bot, Meta's Muse, or agents from Town, an AI assistant startup. The company says it is working with other companies to expand the service. "Handing over a password, secret, or credential is a common shortcut to an agent, but can leave people with sensitive information in places they can no longer control as a copy gets saved for the next time," the company said in a blog post. "1Password for Agents gives people a trusted way to delegate tasks to personal AI agents while keeping control of the passwords, secrets, and credentials those tasks require."

Online agentic activity has increasingly unsettled major institutions. In fact, 1Password's new platform launches on the same day that Axios reports U.S. banks have begun detecting agentic activity inside user accounts. This isn't necessarily a case of rogue agents pilfering accounts but rather an example of how consumers are increasingly allowing automated services to act on their behalf, including on financial matters. Still, the potential for agent-related problems remains large. The big issue appears to be that most banks cannot tell whether agentic activity is tied to user requests or not. Bankers interviewed by the outlet described the situation as "horrifying," and a Chase spokesperson interviewed by Axios additionally told the outlet that customers "should not give their usernames and passwords to anyone."