AWS Step Functions now integrates with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (currently in preview) to allow AI agent reasoning steps — such as document classification and data extraction — to be embedded directly into automated workflows. This enables multiple agents to run in parallel or sequence within a single workflow, with human approval gates and full audit trails via CloudWatch. For security teams, this introduces AI-driven decision-making into business-critical automation pipelines, expanding the attack surface and governance considerations.

Architect’s Take: Review IAM permissions granted to Step Functions execution roles that invoke AgentCore harnesses, ensuring least-privilege access and that per-invocation model/prompt overrides cannot be manipulated by untrusted inputs. Establish logging and alerting on CloudWatch agent turn details from day one, and apply human approval steps before any agent action with write or destructive permissions.

Original advisory: AWS Step Functions adds AgentCore-powered agentic reasoning step

AWS Step Functions now integrates with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore (currently in preview) to allow AI agent reasoning steps within automated workflows. This enables teams to embed LLM-based tasks such as document classification and data extraction directly into orchestrated pipelines, with parallel execution and human approval gates. Audit trails are available via CloudWatch, capturing agent inputs, outputs, and token usage.

Architect’s Take: Review IAM permissions granted to Step Functions execution roles that invoke AgentCore harnesses — ensure least-privilege policies are applied, particularly around model invocation and tool access. Treat human approval steps as a mandatory control for any agentic action with write or destructive scope, and validate that CloudWatch audit logging is enabled before promoting any AgentCore-integrated workflow to production.

Original advisory: AWS Step Functions adds AgentCore-powered agentic reasoning step