Disclosed are various embodiments for transitioning user accounts from an assisted status to a self-managed status. In one embodiment, a service receives an authentication request from a client device, where the authentication request specifies a unique user identifier corresponding to a communication channel. The service then determines that the unique user identifier corresponds to an assisted user account but the client device is not logged in under an assisting user account. The service generates an ephemeral security credential and sends the ephemeral security credential to the communication channel. The service then creates a self-managed user account having the unique user identifier in response to receiving the ephemeral security credential from the client device.