Cybersecurity Trend: IAM Adapts to Secure and Enable AI Agents
As organizations deploy more AI agents, identity and access management programs must evolve to support new actors, new workflows, and new risk paths.
This Gartner® report examines IAM changes supporting AI adoption and outlines practical focus areas across the AI identity lifecycle, so security and IAM leaders can strengthen controls while scaling AI initiatives.
In the report, you’ll explore how to think about IAM capabilities for AI agents across key functions, including identity registration, credential management, authentication, authorization, and monitoring & observability.
Our key takeaways from the report:
- How to assess IAM readiness for AI agents across the AI identity lifecycle
- Where IAM programs typically need additional process maturity and automation
- How to extend authentication and monitoring controls into AI deployments
- How to approach Least Privilege authorization for AI agents
- Why agent identity registration and accountable ownership matter for governance and control
- How to avoid fragmented “islands” of visibility by integrating monitoring and observability
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Gartner, Cybersecurity Trend: IAM Adapts to Secure and Enable AI Agents, 2026.
Gartner, Cybersecurity Trend: IAM Adapts to Secure and Enable AI Agents, By Nathan Harris, Homan Farahmand, 14 January 2026. Gartner is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.
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