Agent Use Turns SaaS Into Identity Platforms
Reed McGinley-Stempel, CEO of Stytch, on authentication for AI agents
Agent use turns ordinary SaaS products into mini identity platforms. Before this shift, most apps only had to verify that a user was logged in inside their own dashboard. They did not need Google style machinery for consent screens, scoped permissions, token issuance, revocation, and audit logs so another piece of software could act for that user. That requirement used to sit with a narrow set of platforms like Google, now it spreads across the long tail of SaaS, which is exactly where Stytch is placing Connected Apps and fine grained authorization.
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The practical change is from sign in to delegation. A user logging into an app is simple authentication. An agent creating a ticket, reading a report, or editing a record on that user’s behalf requires scopes, consent, and a way to cut off access later. That is full OAuth identity provider work, and many apps have never built it.
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This expands the market beyond classic enterprise identity buyers. Stytch argues that consumer and SMB apps now need role based access control too, because a human and that human’s agent should not automatically get the same permissions. That pulls enterprise grade authorization into products that previously only needed basic login.
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The competitive split becomes clearer in this world. Clerk is strongest where teams want fast drop in UI for startup apps. WorkOS grew from enterprise SSO and directory sync. Stytch is trying to own the broader stack, login, delegated access, roles, and fraud controls, so customers can add agent access without rebuilding identity from scratch.
As software gets used through Claude, ChatGPT, and other agent clients instead of only through native dashboards, identity stops being a background feature and becomes part of product distribution. The winners will be the apps that can safely expose read and write actions through delegated access, and the identity vendors that make that upgrade fast will capture a much larger slice of the stack.