Keyfactor to acquire Cofide as AI agents drive identity shift

As enterprises deploy AI agents and cloud-native workloads at unprecedented scale, the challenge is shifting from managing human identities to securing millions of autonomous, non-human identities. Keyfactor is positioning itself for that future with the planned acquisition of UK-based Cofide, a company specializing in identity for AI agents and cloud workloads.

The deal expands Keyfactor’s Trust Control Plane beyond certificates and machine identities into the emerging world of AI agents, enabling organizations to manage and govern every non-human identity through a unified trust infrastructure.

Keyfactor describes itself as a leader in trust infrastructure for AI and machines, helping organizations secure digital interactions through identity, cryptography and certificate lifecycle management. Cofide, meanwhile, has developed an open standards-based identity platform designed specifically for cloud workloads and AI agents. Rather than relying on long-lived credentials, Cofide assigns each workload or AI agent a unique, verified and short-lived identity tied to a specific purpose, reducing the risks associated with static secrets that can be copied or stolen.

The acquisition comes as enterprises grapple with a fundamental shift in identity management. Automated systems already outnumber human users in many environments, and the adoption of agentic AI is accelerating that imbalance. While organizations have spent years strengthening identity controls for employees and customers, many AI agents and software workloads continue to rely on static credentials that provide broad access if compromised.

By integrating Cofide’s technology, Keyfactor aims to extend trusted identity deeper into cloud-native and agentic architectures while maintaining centralized governance through its Trust Control Plane. The company says this will enable security teams to apply the same principles of identity, authentication and policy enforcement to AI agents that they already use for people, devices and applications.

The combined platform is intended to give every workload and AI agent its own cryptographically verifiable identity, allowing organizations to grant narrowly scoped, short-lived permissions instead of persistent credentials. This approach aligns with emerging security principles such as zero trust and least privilege, limiting what an AI agent can access and reducing the potential impact if an identity is compromised.

The announcement also reflects a broader trend across the cybersecurity and digital identity markets. As AI agents evolve from assistants into autonomous systems capable of making decisions and interacting with enterprise infrastructure, identity is becoming a foundational control rather than an afterthought. Industry attention is increasingly shifting toward securing non-human identities—including machine identities, workloads and AI agents—as organizations prepare for environments where autonomous software vastly outnumbers employees.

For Keyfactor, the acquisition strengthens its broader vision of comprehensive trust infrastructure for the AI and quantum era. For Cofide, becoming part of a larger trust infrastructure platform provides the scale needed to accelerate adoption of its workload and AI agent identity technology.

As enterprises continue adopting agentic AI, the ability to issue, verify and govern trusted identities for autonomous systems is rapidly emerging as a core requirement of enterprise security.  Keyfactor’s planned acquisition of Cofide underscores how vendors are expanding beyond traditional public key infrastructure and certificate management toward comprehensive identity and trust platforms built for an AI-driven future.

About Keyfactor and Cofide

Keyfactor provides trust infrastructure that helps organizations manage machine identities, cryptography and digital trust through a centralized Trust Control Plane, securing machines, workloads and AI systems. Cofide is a UK-based identity platform that gives cloud workloads and AI agents unique, short-lived cryptographic identities, replacing static credentials across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  AI agents  |  Cofide  |  digital ID  |  identity control plane  |  Keyfactor  |  non-human identities