Artificial agency is a way of describing software by what it can do: infer from inputs, choose actions, adapt to context, and affect systems or people. The idea does not require human-like consciousness, only observable capability and some degree of independence. In cyber security, that matters because defenders and regulators need to know when a tool is merely static code and when it can behave like an actor in a workflow.
Security teams use this lens to map risk. A system with artificial agency may read data, generate decisions, trigger downstream automation, or change behavior after deployment, so it needs tighter access controls, logging, review, and human override. Attackers can also exploit agent-like systems to scale phishing, reconnaissance, or fraud by letting them adapt messages and actions automatically. The practical question is not whether the system thinks, but whether its behavior can be predicted, constrained, and audited.