Agents are the new channel. Behavior is still the only signal that matters.

Agent-driven traffic surged 7,851% year-over-year in 2025, and agentic channels accounted for $262 billion in sales during the 2025 holiday season, establishing AI agents as the newest enterprise transaction channel alongside the web, mobile, and APIs. Unlike previous channels, agents operate autonomously without human involvement, making identity verification alone insufficient to address security risks. Cequence outlines a three-step framework for agent security: detecting agents amid human-like traffic patterns, establishing identity frameworks amid fragmented standards, and implementing behavioral monitoring that extends beyond static permissions to catch runtime anomalies.