The 2026 cybersecurity predictions are in, and the consensus is clear: AI plays a central role in both cyber attacks and defense.

A key change is that AI agents have evolved beyond being mere tools; they now act as digital identities that need their own governance. Attackers move past just breaching servers—they are logging in, often using these autonomous AI identities.

It's encouraging to see the industry already addressing this challenge. Here are some important points from recent reports and announcements:

✔️ Identity is becoming the new perimeter. AI is driving more advanced credential theft and large-scale automated social engineering.

✔️ Non-human identities need governance. The rise of "agentic AI" requires each autonomous system to have access controls to prevent overprivileged "shadow agents.

✔️ Okta introduced new AI agent security features, indicating clear progress toward managing and governing these identities.

✔️ On the infrastructure side, Google's recently announced Private AI Compute enables running powerful AI models while protecting data inside hardware-enforced enclaves.

To fully realise AI's benefits in the cloud, an identity-first security approach that covers human and AI-driven identities is essential. This focus perfectly aligns with my passion—connecting identity governance from Okta.

If your team is exploring AI identity management or looking for best practices, feel free to reach out. I'm always glad to connect and discuss what's coming next!

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