Why agent sprawl matters
You cannot protect what you do not know is running. As teams add AI agents on their own, the count climbs past what security can see. Each uncounted agent holds access, and each one is a way in that nobody is watching.
Where teams get it wrong
Leaders often guess they have a handful of agents. The real number is usually much higher, because agents get built into tools, scripts, vendor products, and one-off automations without a central list. Some agents even create other agents, which grows the count faster.
Start with a real inventory, not a guess.
Give every agent an owner and a clear job.
Set standing access to expire on its own.
Recount often, because the number keeps moving.
A simple example
A company thinks it runs ten agents. A first inventory finds sixty. Most were spun up by developers to save time, each with its own login and access. None were tracked. That is agent sprawl, and the first fix is simply counting.