SmartRisk Agent for Human Risk Management

Human Risk Management depends on one critical capability: accurately understanding which users pose the greatest risk and why. Traditional risk scoring models often rely on limited data, static assessments or point-in-time signals that fail to reflect how employees actually behave across systems and over time.

SmartRisk Agent™ is designed to change that. By continuously analyzing behavioral signals from across the KnowBe4 platform, SmartRisk Agent provides a more comprehensive, behavior-based view of human risk. It helps security teams move beyond assumptions and toward actionable insight enabling more informed decisions, targeted interventions and measurable risk reduction.

Key Takeaways

• SmartRisk Agent strengthens Human Risk Management by improving how user risk is measured. It analyzes behavioral signals across the KnowBe4 platform to deliver more accurate, actionable risk scores.
• Traditional risk scores lack context and continuity. SmartRisk Agent addresses these gaps with continuous monitoring, broader data inputs and clearer insight into why risk exists.
• Risk scoring becomes dynamic and behavior-based. Instead of point-in-time assessments, SmartRisk Agent tracks how risk changes over time at the user, team and organizational levels.
• Security teams gain clearer prioritization. Identifying high-risk users, trends and contributing factors helps teams focus interventions where they reduce the most risk.
• SmartRisk Agent operates as part of the KnowBe4 platform. It integrates with existing products and AI Defense Agents to serve as a central intelligence layer for human risk management.

What is SmartRisk Agent?

Depending on who you ask, between 70 and 90 percent of cyber risk has human error as the root cause. That's why Human Risk Management (HRM) is so important.

And here is the next major advance in HRM. We're thrilled to announce the second version of our risk score architecture. It is so far advanced we have renamed—promoted really—our initial "Virtual Risk Officer" to SmartRisk Agent™.

It delivers a game-changing update to your risk assessment capabilities and provides you more detailed and actionable insights. To clarify, the "Risk Score" is the numeric output of either the earlier Virtual Risk Officer and now the new SmartRisk Agent.

SmartRisk Agent is an integrated, rule-based engine purpose-built for human risk management. This powerful enhancement gives you a more comprehensive and accurate approach to evaluating user risk for your org, empowering you with unprecedented visibility and actionable insights. 

This agent works closely together with all the other KnowBe4 AI Defense Agents. Four agents are released as previews for the KnowBe4 community, four more are being worked on as we speak for 2025, and many more to come in the future platform, all integrated with each other and powerful modules like the Egress email security suite.

Why Traditional Risk Scores Fall Short

Many organizations rely on risk scores to understand human-driven cyber risk, but traditional scoring models often provide an incomplete picture. These approaches typically depend on a limited set of signals or point-in-time assessments that fail to reflect how users behave across systems and over time.

Original risk scoring models established an important foundation by introducing a numeric representation of user risk. However, as attack techniques evolve and workplaces become more complex, static or narrowly scoped risk scores can struggle to keep pace with real-world behavior.

Traditional risk scores often fall short because they:

• Rely on a narrow range of inputs rather than signals from across the security ecosystem
• Treat risk as a snapshot instead of a continuously changing condition
• Lack the context needed to explain why a user’s risk score is high or low
• Make it difficult to identify meaningful trends, outliers or changes in behavior over time

As a result, security teams may know that risk exists, but not where to focus their efforts or how to reduce it effectively.

This gap is what drove the evolution of KnowBe4’s risk score architecture. SmartRisk Agent builds on the original Risk Score concept by expanding the breadth of data considered, increasing the accuracy of scoring and delivering deeper insight into the behaviors driving risk. Rather than replacing the idea of a risk score, SmartRisk Agent enhances it and transforms risk scoring from a static metric into a dynamic, actionable component of Human Risk Management.

How SmartRisk Agent Improves Human Risk Scoring

SmartRisk Agent enhances human risk scoring by expanding both the depth and breadth of data used to evaluate user behavior. Instead of relying on a limited set of signals, it brings together behavioral insights from across the KnowBe4 platform to produce more accurate, actionable risk scores including:

• Enhanced Risk Scoring Algorithm
• Targeted Risk-Based Training Recommendations
• Risk Trend Monitoring
• Risk Score Distribution Insights
• Detailed Security Types Analysis
• Identification of High-Risk Users and Teams

Enhanced Risk Scoring Algorithm

SmartRisk Agent uses an enhanced risk scoring algorithm that considers a wider range of risk signals across KnowBe4’s products, including KSAT, Phish Alert Button, SecurityCoach, and Email Exposure Check Pro. By aggregating signals from multiple sources, SmartRisk Agent delivers a more complete view of user behavior and reduces blind spots in risk assessment.

Outcome: Security teams gain a more accurate understanding of user risk based on real behavior, not isolated events.

Targeted Risk-Based Training Recommendations

SmartRisk Agent provides recommendations tailored to the security type presenting the greatest risk. These recommendations are delivered through targeted training using ModStore content, helping organizations focus education efforts where they are needed most.

Outcome: Training becomes more effective and efficient, driving measurable behavior change instead of generic awareness.

Risk Trend Monitoring

Risk Trend Monitoring tracks changes in risk scores over time, allowing organizations to see whether individual users, teams or departments are improving or regressing.

Outcome: Security leaders can validate whether interventions are working and identify emerging risk patterns before they escalate.

Risk Score Distribution Insights

The Risk Score Distribution Graph reveals insights into central tendency, spread and outliers across the organization. This makes it easier to understand how risk is distributed and where the most significant deviations occur.

Outcome: Teams can quickly identify high-risk users and unusual behavior that warrants immediate attention.

Detailed Security Types Analysis

SmartRisk Agent includes a detailed Security Types table with breakdowns and trends for known risk factors and contributing points. This provides transparency into how risk scores are calculated and which behaviors contribute most to overall risk.

Outcome: Security teams gain clarity into why risk exists, enabling more informed and defensible decision-making.

Identification of High-Risk Users and Teams

SmartRisk Agent identifies the riskiest users and teams, partitioned by contributing risk factors. This allows organizations to prioritize remediation efforts based on impact rather than intuition.

Outcome: Resources are focused where they deliver the greatest risk reduction, improving overall security posture.

Who Is SmartRisk Agent For?

SmartRisk Agent is designed for organizations that need deeper visibility into human-driven cyber risk and a more accurate way to measure, prioritize and reduce it. It supports a wide range of security and risk stakeholders responsible for managing user behavior at scale.

Security leaders and CISOs use SmartRisk Agent to translate human behavior into measurable risk insights. Risk scores, trends and distributions provide a clear, data-driven view of where human risk exists across the organization, making it easier to communicate priorities and progress to executive stakeholders.

Security operations and risk teams rely on SmartRisk Agent to identify high-risk users, teams and behaviors. By understanding which factors contribute most to elevated risk, teams can focus interventions where they will have the greatest impact rather than applying generic controls or training.

Security awareness and training teams benefit from SmartRisk Agent’s ability to connect behavior with targeted education. Risk-based recommendations help align training and coaching efforts with real-world user behavior, improving effectiveness and reducing wasted effort.

Organizations with distributed, remote or regulated workforces use SmartRisk Agent to maintain consistent visibility into user risk regardless of location, role or department. Continuous monitoring and trend analysis support ongoing risk management in environments where behavior, threats and compliance requirements are constantly changing.

Turn Human Risk Insight Into Action

Human risk is dynamic, behavioral and constantly evolving and managing it requires more than static scores or one-time assessments. SmartRisk Agent brings human risk management into focus by transforming real user behavior into meaningful risk insights that security teams can act on.

By continuously analyzing signals across the KnowBe4 platform, SmartRisk Agent helps organizations understand where risk exists, why it exists and how it changes over time. This enables more precise prioritization, more effective interventions and measurable progress toward reducing human-driven cyber risk.

Ready to see how behavior-based risk scoring fits into your Human Risk Management strategy? Explore how SmartRisk Agent works within the KnowBe4 platform and experience Human Risk Management in action.