Giving an identity to the AI Agents

An AI agent can research a product, compare vendors, and decide exactly what to do next. But ask it to create an account, receive a verification code, access a mobile app, and continue the workflow, and things get more complicated.

We've spent years making AI agents better at reasoning. The next challenge is giving them the resources to operate across the digital world.

That's where agent identity comes into the picture.

Intelligence isn't the same as access

AI agents can already handle complex, multi-step tasks with minimal human input. They can write code, browse websites, analyze information, and coordinate workflows across different tools.

But knowing how to complete a task isn't the same as having everything required to do it.

Consider an agent responsible for managing a business workflow. It might need to register for a service, receive an email, verify a phone number, access a mobile application, and repeat the process over time.

Its reasoning model might be capable of handling every step. Yet without the appropriate accounts, communication channels, device access, and connectivity, the workflow can stop before it starts. This isn't necessarily a reasoning problem but an operational one.

Most agents work through a combination of APIs, browsers, tools, and execution environments. These provide ways to interact with digital services, but they don't automatically give an agent an inbox, a phone number, a mobile device, or persistent access to the accounts it needs.

What does it mean for an AI agent to have an identity?

When we talk about agent identity, we're talking about the resources that allow an agent to communicate, access services, and operate consistently across digital environments.

Think about what you need to function online. You have devices, phone numbers, email addresses, accounts, credentials, and network access. These resources let you communicate with others, authenticate with services, and carry out tasks across different platforms.

AI agents increasingly need access to similar resources to work beyond isolated sessions. An agent's operational identity can include several components:

• receive messages, manage correspondence, and interact with services.
• Devices and execution environments: Physical or cloud-based devices, including cloud iPhones, that let agents interact directly with mobile applications.
• Connectivity and network access: eSIMs, proxies, and other networking resources that support the connectivity requirements of particular workflows.
• Accounts and permissions: Authorized accounts, credentials, and delegated access that determine which services an agent can use and what it can do.
• Persistent environments: Consistent execution environments and retained state that help agents continue working with their assigned resources across tasks.

These components serve different purposes. A phone number provides a communication endpoint. An eSIM supports mobile connectivity. A cloud iPhone provides a mobile environment. Accounts and permissions govern access to services.

Together, they form the operational foundation an agent needs to work across the digital world.

Not every agent needs every component. A workflow that runs entirely through an API may need no mobile device at all. Others may require an inbox, a phone number, or access to a native mobile application.

The point is to give each agent the appropriate resources for the work it's expected to perform. Agent identity, in this sense, is about moving beyond agents that execute individual tasks in isolated environments toward agents equipped to operate consistently across the services their responsibilities require.

Beyond Browsers and APIs

Browsers and APIs remain essential to agent workflows. They make it possible to interact with websites, retrieve information, and automate many digital processes. But not every service exposes everything an agent needs through a browser or API.

Some workflows require direct interaction with mobile applications. Others depend on email communication, phone-based verification, or access to particular accounts and network environments.

Consider a few examples:

• Mobile app testing: An agent needs a device where it can launch applications, navigate interfaces, and interact with them directly.
• Cross-platform research: An agent collecting information across services may need authorized accounts, dedicated inboxes, and access to mobile environments.
• Business operations: An agent managing recurring tasks might need to receive messages, interact with an application, and continue working with the same assigned resources over time.

In each case, the agent's reasoning capabilities are only part of the solution. It also needs the right environment and access for the task. This doesn't make browsers or APIs obsolete. It means agents need to work across different environments, using the appropriate method for each workflow.

As agents take on more responsibilities, providing access to these environments becomes an increasingly important part of building autonomous systems. Building an agent that operates across multiple services can mean working with several different providers.

One provides cloud devices, another handles email, and another supplies phone numbers, eSIMs, or proxy access. Developers then have to configure accounts, manage credentials, connect integrations, and make sure everything works together.

The problem isn't simply the number of tools involved. It's that the resources an agent depends on are spread across different systems.

Each additional integration introduces another component to configure, maintain, and troubleshoot. Developers end up spending time assembling the environment their agents need before they can focus on the workflows those agents are supposed to perform.

This becomes more challenging when agents need to operate across multiple services or continue working with the same resources over time. A more practical approach is to treat devices, communication channels, connectivity, and automation as parts of a common infrastructure layer.

Instead of assembling every component from scratch, developers should be able to provision the resources their agents need and manage how those resources are used across workflows.

That's the infrastructure problem behind agent identity.

How Mobilerun Brings Agent Identity Together

Mobilerun’s infrastructure gives AI agents access to the resources they need to operate across digital services. Rather than focusing on a single capability, Mobilerun brings together components of an agent's operational identity, including cloud iPhones, phone numbers, email addresses, eSIMs, proxies, and mobile automation workflows.

Each component serves a different purpose.

Cloud iPhones give agents access to mobile environments. Phone numbers and email addresses provide communication endpoints. eSIMs and proxies support connectivity and network requirements. Automation workflows let developers put these resources to work in practical applications.

Together, these capabilities provide a foundation for agents that need to do more than interact with a browser or execute an API call.

Consider an agent that needs to access a mobile service, receive a message, and continue a recurring workflow. The model may already know what to do. The challenge is making sure the appropriate resources are available, the necessary permissions are in place, and the environment supports the steps involved.

Mobilerun brings these capabilities together in a common infrastructure layer, helping developers provision and manage the resources behind their agents' operational identities.

The goal is to make it easier to build agents that can operate across the digital environments their work requires, without forcing developers to treat every device, communication channel, and automation workflow as a completely separate problem.

This is what makes agent identity more than a collection of credentials. It's the combination of resources, access, connectivity, and execution environments that allows an agent to carry out its work.

The Next Step for AI Agents Is Operational Identity

Making AI agents more capable is only part of the challenge. They also need the resources, access, and environments required to carry out their work across digital services. As agents move from isolated tasks to ongoing workflows, provisioning and managing those resources becomes an infrastructure problem of its own.

The next stage of agent development won't be defined by reasoning capabilities alone. It will also depend on how effectively agents can access the environments, communication channels, and services their work requires.

AI agents don't just need better tools. They need the infrastructure to operate.

Mobilerun is building toward that future by bringing together the devices, communication channels, connectivity, and automation that help agents act across the digital world.