Omdia: 400 security leaders name confusion top AI agent identity blocker

Omdia's Todd Thiemann surveyed 400 security leaders on AI agent identity security, and the findings reveal a market that is still working itself out. The top inhibitor was confusion and uncertainty about where agent attacks will originate, and the top answer for which platform should lead was the data security platform, followed by the identity platform. That disagreement matters because data security and other risks may still require controls from multiple providers, increasing the policies enterprises must coordinate and the potential for gaps.

The market is already moving through consolidation. Palo Alto Networks Inc. acquired CyberArk Software Ltd., which Thiemann said reflects broader consolidation in the identity security market. Okta Inc. recently added an AI agent runtime gateway and formed the Blueprint Alliance with Amazon Web Services Inc. and CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. The Blueprint Alliance defines gateway capabilities such as authentication, authorization and visibility, but that alone does not resolve the coordination problem across layers.

Thiemann described AI agents as a bit of the Wild West, with a lot of change happening, and said that is going to have to work itself out. The stakes hinge on whether consolidated platforms can protect a growing class of machine identities without leaving gaps, and on whether enterprises can coordinate policies across the multiple providers their data security and other risks may require. For security leaders, the near-term test is whether defense in depth becomes the practical standard rather than a single dominant platform.