How AI Agents Are Growing Up in the Enterprise

James WhiteVP, Engineering, AI Security

AI agents aren’t just hype, they’re in production and they’re hitting a growth spurt.

James White, VP of Engineering at F5, makes a powerful observation: if you want to understand agents, don’t think in terms of software versions, think in terms of human development. An agent isn’t v1.0, it’s an entity—a digital one—that has the potential to be productive but also needs nurturing.

The Maturity Curve of Agents

Like humans, agents need constant attention in their early stages. Much like a newborn that can’t yet feed itself, they’re more promise than utility. But babies learn to feed themselves and grow quickly into children and adults. Likewise, with better models, tooling, and security infrastructure, agents start contributing with meaningful impact.

Today, we’re at the “cutting the grass” moment, when a child starts taking on chores and making life easier for the adults in the room. Agents can now handle defined tasks independently, whether it’s generating research, coding with GitHub Copilot, or shopping online through Google’s new agent interfaces. They’re growing and maturing with knowledge, expertise, and capability.

Enter the Era of Non-Human Resources

This evolution is forcing a mindset shift in enterprise security, which is set up to protect IT systems and services from human activity. Much like human employees, agents will need specific access control and privileges as they roam through your digital environment.

What will that shift look like? Think about it this way: we created human resource departments to manage human contributors. Agents can be considered as non-human resources—NHRs—capable of doing real, valuable work in organizations around the globe.

The current agents are at a graduate level of experience and output, but they will soon improve to the equivalent of mid-level and senior roles, with related responsibilities. The NHR requirements will go up: they will cost more, they will need better access and more security.

That means companies will need:

• Policies for agent access and permissions
• Cost tracking and ROI frameworks for agent deployment
• Security standards specific to agentic behavior and lateral movement risks

Why Security Must Grow Up Too

The catch? We can’t treat these agents like traditional software. Their autonomy, ability to act, and potential to collaborate means they introduce a fundamentally new attack surface.

Considering the analogy of human development, you wouldn’t wrap a baby in bubble wrap so tight they can’t move. In the workplace, you don’t keep young employees on a leash or under surveillance. Instead, you set boundaries that allow them to grow safely and gain experience.

That’s exactly what F5 AI runtime security solutions do for AI apps and agents. We don’t slow down agents, but serve as the bodyguard that’s ready to intercept when threats appear.

What’s Next?

As AI agents become more autonomous, more integrated, and more capable, they’ll stop being abstract ‘agents’ and simply start being part of the team. We know, because we build our own agents and use them in production. They do valuable work as non-human resources.

But agents that have access and ability need oversight, controls, and visibility just like any other resource. The companies that win won’t be the ones who build the fastest agents—they’ll be the ones who build the safest ones.

F5 is securing this new workforce of non-human resources. Because innovation without protection isn’t progress: it’s risk.

About the Author

James WhiteVP, Engineering, AI Security

James White is an accomplished engineer and business leader with nearly two decades of experience in the enterprise software industry.

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