ServiceNow introduces AI Passport for runtime agent governance

On October 15, ServiceNow introduced AI Passport and expanded agent-governance controls, describing the new product as a cryptographically signed credential that verifies what first- and third-party AI agents and Model Context Protocol servers are authorized to do during multi-agent workflows.

The company says agents will present the credential at runtime so permissions can be checked before an action proceeds. ServiceNow says its Super Intelligence Control Tower will issue each passport using context from the company’s Configuration Management Database, governance, risk and compliance policies, and workflow approvals.

According to ServiceNow, AI Passport uses open specifications so governance products, identity providers and enforcement points can issue and verify credentials for their own agents and third-party systems. Neither reviewed source provides a public technical specification, cryptographic format or protocol identifier for those specifications.

ServiceNow says the system supports scoped delegation that narrows an agent’s authority at each step, along with targeted revocation. The control tower is intended to retain the audit record behind agent actions, and passport audit trails include compliance signatures. For behavior outside an approved scope, ServiceNow lists graduated responses: redirecting or restricting an agent, reconnecting it with the correct context, or terminating it. The company says broader policy enforcement is planned to progress from alerts to throttling and blocking.

The release also introduces shadow AI detection for finding unapproved agents. ServiceNow says more than 400 out-of-box connectors will help discover agents across platforms and vendors. It named NVIDIA as a design and launch partner for an enforcement implementation using NVIDIA’s Open Agent Safety Platform, OpenShell and Sentry.

ServiceNow says AI Passport, shadow AI detection and AI Cost Management are expected to become available in the fourth quarter of 2026. The company did not provide an exact release date or pricing for AI Passport.