With the release of the 2026 Businesses at Work Report, where Okta Integration Network (OIN) anonymized customer data, I wanted to share some insights on the emergence of AI agents, the identity threats they pose, and business trends shaping the world today.
Top 4 Takeaways
- AI agent adoption is cautious: It is not new information that AI Agents are changing business rapidly. In fact, data suggests that business leaders are moving on to AI Agents as they evaluate security and identity risks before committing to production at scale. 82% of businesses have limited to moderate AI agent adoption.
- Identity concerns are slowing AI agent adoption: The study shows leaders are less concerned with what agents can do and more focused on AI governance, identity, and access risks, with 58% citing AI governance and IAM as a top concern.
- The first line of defense is under pressure: Credential based attacks are rising, particularly across nonprofit and wholesale trade, and are increasing pressure on authentication systems as organizations expand access for AI agents. Threat acceleration vs. high-assurance authentication adoption increases 6.3x faster.
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Identity risk varies by region: The global average doesn’t tell the whole story. Discover how threat-to-authentication ratios vary by region and what the threat landscape looks like where you operate:
- Germany: 28%
- Canada: 20%
- Italy: 17%
- United States: 11%
- United Kingdom: 6.3%
- Australia:6.1%
- Netherlands: 5.4%
- Switzerland: 4.3%
- Singapore: 3.8%
- France: 1.9%
As AI agents deploy across the enterprise, organizations need a solid identity foundation. The Okta platform brings the identity security fabric to life by connecting authentication, governance, and access across human and non-human identities. Learn more by downloading the full report.