Insygna publishes white paper on managing AI agents as workforce

Insygna released the second edition of its white paper on Agentic Workforce Management, arguing companies need HR, finance and procurement controls for AI agents as they scale toward enterprise-wide deployment. The paper lands as Gartner projects Fortune 500 firms could run more than 150,000 AI agents by 2028 and says most organizations still lack the controls to govern them.

Why it matters: - Fortune 500 companies are projected to operate more than 150,000 AI agents each by 2028, up from roughly 15 in 2025. - Gartner says only 13% of organizations believe they have the controls needed to manage AI agents. - Unmanaged agents can drive costs, expose proprietary data to external AI models and create compliance risk in hiring, finance and other regulated functions. - Insygna is betting that companies will need to govern AI agents the same way they manage employees, contractors and contingent workers.

What happened: - Insygna published the second edition of its white paper on Agentic Workforce Management on July 7, 2026. - The Merrimack, New Hampshire, startup says the paper lays out a framework for managing AI agents as an extended workforce. - The white paper is available at Insygna's site. - Insygna said the update reflects new market data and the European Union's June 2026 adoption of the Digital Omnibus on AI.

The details: - The paper argues AI agents are built by IT teams or employees, purchased from vendors and deployed as software, but act without human involvement. - Insygna says once companies run thousands of agents, the systems begin to resemble an extended workforce. - The framework is built around existing HR, Finance and Procurement processes. - The white paper includes a step-by-step agent lifecycle process covering purchase or development, activation and retirement. - The second edition also adds a maturity self-assessment across six areas of agent governance. - The assessment is paired with priorities to help leaders sequence their work. - Insygna says the platform gives each agent a verifiable identity and a managed lifecycle. - The company says that setup helps control agent costs, protect proprietary data and maintain compliance while tracking which agents are running, what they can do and who is accountable.

Between the lines: - The paper frames AI agent oversight as a business operations problem, not just an IT deployment issue. - Michael Beygelman, Insygna co-founder and CEO, said business owners of AI outcomes need to inherit responsibility for onboarding, cost management, data access, monitoring and shutdown. - Beygelman said the white paper is aimed at HR, Finance and Procurement leaders stepping into that role. - The question of who owns agents after launch is still unresolved at many companies. - Atlassian, Moderna and ServiceNow recently expanded the role of their top HR executive to lead AI workforce strategy, which the paper cites as a sign that the category is moving into operating decisions. - Insygna recently won the HR Tech Europe 2026 Startup Competition and was shortlisted for a 2026 HR Tech Product of the Year award.

What's next: - Insygna plans to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco and HR Tech in Las Vegas, both in October 2026. - The company is pre-revenue and is inviting a select group of organizations into a closed beta program through the end of 2026. - Leaders can use the new maturity self-assessment to benchmark governance gaps and prioritize controls before AI agent counts scale further.

The bottom line: - Insygna is trying to turn AI agent management into a formal workforce discipline before enterprise deployments outgrow current controls.