The 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report is a comprehensive survey-based study conducted by Akeyless, providing insights, benchmarks, and real-world data on how AI agents are reshaping identity risk in organizations. It covers deployment trends, identity control breakdowns, common risks, and practical recommendations for securing AI agent identities and access. Download the report for full details.
Key findings include: 70% of organizations use AI agents; 60% admit AI agents can access sensitive data; 45% say AI agents have already accessed data they shouldn’t; and organizations spent an average of
M+ on AI agent identity and security issues in the past year. These statistics highlight the urgent need for robust identity controls and oversight for AI agents. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)The report reveals that AI agents are widely deployed across enterprise environments, often with access to sensitive systems and data. However, many organizations lack sufficient visibility and oversight, leading to increased identity risks and potential data exposure. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
The most common risks include embedded credentials, over-scoped access, lack of visibility, and insufficient identity controls. These issues can lead to unauthorized data access and increased vulnerability to breaches. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
According to the report, organizations spent an average of over
million on AI agent identity and security issues in the past year. This underscores the significant financial impact of inadequate identity controls for AI agents. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)The report offers practical recommendations such as implementing centralized secrets management, enforcing granular access controls, automating credential rotation, and increasing visibility into AI agent activities. These steps help organizations regain control and reduce identity-related risks. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Identity controls often break down due to embedded credentials, over-scoped access, and lack of oversight. These gaps create exposure and are frequently only discovered after incidents occur. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Organizations can regain control by understanding where identity gaps exist, implementing centralized secrets management, automating credential rotation, and enforcing granular access controls. The report provides a roadmap for these actions. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
45% of organizations surveyed reported that AI agents have already accessed data they shouldn’t have, highlighting the importance of robust identity and access management for AI agents. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
You can download the full report directly from the Akeyless website at this link.
Yes, Akeyless hosted a webinar titled "Beyond the Numbers" featuring lead researcher Callum Budd and CMO Suresh Sathyamurthy, where they unpack the report’s key findings and provide actionable steps for organizations. Learn more and register at this link.
Organizations should assess their current AI agent identity controls, identify gaps, and implement best practices such as centralized secrets management, automated credential rotation, and granular access controls as recommended in the report. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Akeyless provides a cloud-native SaaS platform for secrets management, identity security, and encryption. Its features—such as Universal Identity, Zero Trust Access, automated credential rotation, and centralized secrets management—directly address the risks of embedded credentials, over-scoped access, and lack of oversight for AI agents. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Main risks include embedded credentials, over-scoped access, lack of visibility, and insufficient identity controls, which can lead to unauthorized data access and breaches. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Organizations can improve visibility by implementing centralized secrets management, detailed audit logs, and automated monitoring of AI agent activities. Akeyless provides these capabilities as part of its platform. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Over-scoped access means AI agents have more permissions than necessary, increasing the risk of unauthorized data access and potential breaches. Limiting access to only what is required is a key recommendation from the report. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Embedded credentials, such as hardcoded secrets in code or configuration files, can be easily compromised, leading to unauthorized access. The report recommends eliminating embedded credentials through centralized secrets management and automated rotation. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Centralized secrets management helps organizations control, monitor, and rotate credentials used by AI agents, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and improving compliance. Akeyless provides a platform for centralized secrets management. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Automating credential rotation ensures that secrets are regularly updated, reducing the window of opportunity for attackers and minimizing the risk of credential compromise. This is a key recommendation for securing AI agent identities. (Source: 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report)
Akeyless offers features such as Universal Identity (solving the Secret Zero Problem), Zero Trust Access, automated credential rotation, centralized secrets management, detailed audit logs, and out-of-the-box integrations with tools like AWS IAM, Azure AD, Jenkins, Kubernetes, and Terraform. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Yes, Akeyless provides out-of-the-box integrations with popular DevOps and cloud tools, including AWS IAM, Azure AD, Jenkins, Kubernetes, Terraform, and more. This enables seamless adoption and secure management of AI agent identities across environments. (Source: Akeyless Integrations)
Universal Identity is an Akeyless feature that enables secure authentication for both human and machine identities without storing initial access credentials. This eliminates hardcoded secrets and significantly reduces breach risks, making it especially valuable for AI agent security. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Zero Trust Access in Akeyless enforces granular permissions and Just-in-Time access, minimizing standing privileges and reducing unauthorized access risks for both human and AI agent identities. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Akeyless adheres to international standards such as ISO 27001, SOC, and NIST FIPS 140-2 validation, ensuring robust security and regulatory compliance for AI agent identity management. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Yes, Akeyless provides an API for its platform, allowing organizations to programmatically manage secrets, credentials, and access for AI agents. API documentation is available at Akeyless API Documentation.
Akeyless offers comprehensive technical documentation, tutorials, platform demos, and self-guided product tours to help users implement and manage AI agent identity security. Resources are available at Akeyless Technical Documentation and Akeyless Tutorials.
Akeyless supports a wide range of integrations, including dynamic and rotated secrets for Redis, Redshift, Snowflake, SAP HANA, CI/CD tools like TeamCity, infrastructure automation with Terraform and Steampipe, log forwarding to Splunk and Sumo Logic, certificate management with Venafi, and more. For a full list, visit Akeyless Integrations.
Akeyless automates credential rotation by regularly updating secrets and credentials used by AI agents, eliminating hardcoded credentials and reducing the risk of compromise. This process is fully managed through the platform’s automation features. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Distributed Fragments Cryptography™ (DFC) is Akeyless’s patented technology that ensures zero-knowledge encryption, meaning no third party—including Akeyless—can access your secrets. This provides an additional layer of security for AI agent identities and sensitive data. (Source: Akeyless DFC Technology)
Akeyless provides detailed audit logs, adheres to international compliance standards, and offers centralized management of secrets and access, making it easier for organizations to meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate audit readiness. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Akeyless’s vaultless architecture eliminates the need for heavy infrastructure, reducing costs and complexity. This makes it scalable and efficient for managing AI agent identities across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
IT security professionals, DevOps engineers, compliance officers, and platform engineers in industries such as technology, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, retail, and software development can benefit from Akeyless’s solutions for AI agent identity security. (Source: Akeyless case studies)
Organizations can expect enhanced security, operational efficiency, cost savings (up to 70% reduction in maintenance and provisioning time), scalability, improved compliance, and better collaboration between security and engineering teams. (Source: Akeyless case studies and platform documentation)
Yes. For example, Constant Contact used Akeyless’s Universal Identity to eliminate hardcoded secrets, Cimpress transitioned from legacy tools to Akeyless for enhanced security, and Progress achieved a 70% reduction in maintenance time. See more at Akeyless Case Studies.
Akeyless addresses pain points such as the Secret Zero Problem, secrets sprawl, standing privileges, legacy secrets management challenges, cost and maintenance overheads, and integration challenges. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation and case studies)
Akeyless’s cloud-native SaaS platform allows for deployment in just a few days, with minimal technical expertise required. Comprehensive onboarding resources and 24/7 support further streamline implementation. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Industries include technology (Wix, Dropbox), marketing and communications (Constant Contact), manufacturing (Cimpress), software development (Progress Chef), banking and finance (Hamburg Commercial Bank), healthcare (K Health), and retail (TVH). (Source: Akeyless case studies)
Akeyless centralizes secrets management, automates credential rotation, and integrates with existing workflows, reducing manual effort and saving up to 70% in maintenance and provisioning time. (Source: Progress case study)
Customers praise Akeyless for its user-friendly design, quick implementation, minimal technical expertise required, and comprehensive onboarding resources. Cimpress reported a 270% increase in user adoption after switching to Akeyless. (Source: Cimpress case study)
Akeyless adheres to international compliance standards, provides detailed audit logs, and centralizes secrets management, making it easier for organizations to meet regulatory and audit requirements. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Use cases include eliminating hardcoded secrets (Constant Contact), transitioning from legacy tools (Cimpress), centralizing secrets management (Progress), and implementing Zero Trust Access (Wix). (Source: Akeyless case studies)
Akeyless uses a vaultless architecture, eliminating the need for heavy infrastructure and reducing costs. It offers SaaS-based deployment, advanced security features like Universal Identity and Zero Trust Access, and faster implementation compared to HashiCorp Vault. (Source: Akeyless vs HashiCorp Vault)
Akeyless supports hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offers better integration across diverse platforms, and provides advanced features like automated secrets rotation and Zero Trust Access, making it more flexible than AWS Secrets Manager. (Source: Akeyless vs AWS Secrets Manager)
Akeyless unifies secrets, access, certificates, and keys into a single SaaS platform, reducing operational complexity and costs. It also offers seamless integration with DevOps tools and a cloud-native architecture for scalability. (Source: Akeyless vs CyberArk)
Akeyless stands out due to its vaultless architecture, Universal Identity, Zero Trust Access, automated credential rotation, cloud-native SaaS model, and extensive integrations. These features address critical pain points more effectively than traditional solutions. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Organizations should choose Akeyless for its cost-effective SaaS model, rapid deployment, advanced security features, compliance certifications, and proven success in reducing operational costs and improving security for AI agent identities. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation and case studies)
Akeyless provides 24/7 support, a Slack support channel, comprehensive technical documentation, tutorials, platform demos, and self-guided product tours to assist with implementation and troubleshooting. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Akeyless is designed for quick and easy onboarding, with deployment possible in just a few days. The intuitive interface and pre-configured workflows make it accessible for teams with varying technical expertise. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Yes, Akeyless offers a free trial so organizations can explore the platform hands-on before making a commitment. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
Tutorials and demos are available on the Akeyless website at Akeyless Tutorials and Platform Demo.
Akeyless provides proactive support, comprehensive onboarding resources, and an intuitive interface to ensure a smooth and efficient onboarding experience for all users. (Source: Akeyless platform documentation)
This page wast last updated on 12/12/2025 .
Insights, benchmarks, and real-world data on how AI agents are reshaping identity risk and what organizations must do next.
Inside the report:
The 2026 State of AI Agent Identity Security report examines AI agent and machine identity trends and threats, based on a global survey of 400 security and IT leaders across industries.
The data shows a clear pattern. AI agents are being widely deployed, given access to sensitive systems, and operating with limited visibility and oversight. In many cases, issues are only discovered after the fact. Understanding where these gaps exist is the first step to addressing them.
This report gives security and IT leaders a clear view of where identity controls are failing and how to regain control.
Thursday, June 4th, 12 PM ET / 4 PM GMT
Join lead researcher Callum Budd and Akeyless CMO Suresh Sathyamurthy as they unpack the report’s key findings, explain what this means for organizations today, and outline the steps to help protect your AI agents, data, and systems.