Agentic workforce is scaling faster than identity and security frameworks can adapt
SEATTLE – Feb. 5, 2026 –The latest survey report from the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the world’s leading not-for-profit organization committed to AI, cloud, and Zero Trust cybersecurity education, has found that while organizations are eager to harness the efficiencies brought about by AI agents, traditional human-centric Identity and Access Management (IAM) architectures aren’t capable of keeping up with agentic behavior. According to the Securing Autonomous AI Agents survey report, which was commissioned by Strata Identity, more than half of organizations (84%) doubted they could pass a compliance audit focused on agent behavior or access controls.
“The agentic workforce is scaling faster than identity and security frameworks can adapt. Success in the agentic era will hinge on treating agent identity with the same rigor historically reserved for human users, enabling secure autonomy at enterprise scale,” said Hillary Baron, AVP of Research, Cloud Security Alliance.
“This survey shows that enterprises are coming to realize that securing AI agents isn’t just about tweaking existing IAM processes, rather it requires rethinking identity architecture altogether. Static credentials, manual provisioning, and siloed policies can’t keep pace with the speed and autonomy of agentic systems. The future of identity must be orchestrated, contextual, and continuous, enabling real-time authentication, authorization, and auditing wherever agents operate,” said Eric Olden, Co-founder & CEO, Strata Identity.
Strata commissioned CSA to develop a survey and report to better understand the industry’s knowledge, attitudes, and opinions regarding identity controls for autonomous AI agents. Strata financed the project and co-developed the questionnaire with CSA research analysts. The survey was conducted online by CSA in September and October 2025 and received 285 responses from IT and security professionals from organizations of various sizes and locations. CSA’s research analysts performed the data analysis and interpretation for this report.
Download the Securing Autonomous AI Agents survey report.
About Strata Identity
Strata Identity enables organizations to orchestrate and modernize human and agent identities without disrupting existing infrastructure while maintaining a frictionless user experience. By decoupling identity from applications, Strata’s Maverics platform unifies SSO, can rationalize redundant IdPs, and ensures continuous access during outages via IdP failover. It enables organizations to extend Zero Trust controls across human, machine, and autonomous AI identities. Learn more at Strata.io and follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube.
About Cloud Security Alliance
The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading not-for-profit organization committed to awareness, practical implementation, and credentialing of forward-looking cybersecurity topics, including AI, cloud, and Zero Trust. In an era where digital transformation drives business success, CSA stands as the global authority ensuring organizations can operate securely while harnessing cutting-edge technology. Through volunteer-driven research, globally-accepted standards, and award-winning vendor-neutral education programs that unite technical experts, industry practitioners, and varied associations, governments, chapters, and corporate members, CSA bridges the gap between innovation and pragmatic security execution. Visit CSA’s website to learn more.
Media Contact
Kristina Rundquist
ZAG Communications for the CSA
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The Cloud Security Alliance is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing, and to provide education on the uses of Cloud Computing to help secure all other forms of computing. The Cloud Security Alliance is led by a broad coalition of industry practitioners, corporations, associations and other key stakeholders. For further information, follow us on Twitter @cloudsa.
For press inquiries, email Zenobia Godschalk of ZAG Communications or reach her by phone at 650.269.8315.
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