Estonia creates AI ‘ID Codes’ to govern autonomous agents

Estonia said it will be the first country in the world to create digital identities for artificial intelligence (AI) agents.

Agents are systems that can perceive information, make decisions and autonomously perform tasks to achieve specific goals. Many of the major AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft, have deployed agents within their popular chatbots.

The Estonian government will launch “AI ID codes” that will enable the agents to act on behalf of people, companies or organisations with defined limits, it said.

“In the future, AI will increasingly carry out digital tasks on our behalf, compiling reports, preparing declarations or interacting with information systems,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said in a statement.

“To that end, it must be clear who is acting on whose behalf with what rights, and who is ultimately responsible.”

The prime minister’s office will ensure to “prevent situations where individuals or organisations are required to grant AI assistants access to all of their rights, services and data,” the statement continued.

Estonia’s move coincides with recent research in that says traditional identity frameworks, such as multi-factor authentication when logging into a banking app, are unable to govern agents that “act, decide and transact at machine speed.”

The Baltic country ranked fifth among the top 10 most digitally progressive states, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2026, tied with Norway, Ireland and Denmark.

The country has already established a digital government structure through a state-backed e-ID system that lets citizens access public services online. It has also created the m-Residency program, which lets foreign nationals run digital-first businesses using the same mobile ID the government issues to its own citizens, from anywhere in the world.