AI Agents Are Fuelling an Identity and Security Crisis for Organizations

Why It Matters

The explosion of AI‑generated identities dramatically expands cyber‑risk exposure, forcing firms to overhaul identity‑access management and invest heavily in specialized security talent to protect against increasingly automated attacks.

Summary

Rubrik Zero Labs reports that AI agents—referred to as non‑human identities (NHIs)—now outnumber human users 82‑to‑1 in corporate environments, inflating the attack surface at a pace security teams can’t match. Ninety percent of global executives cite identity attacks as their top cyber risk, and 89% of organizations plan to hire dedicated identity‑security staff while 87% intend to switch IAM providers, largely over security concerns. The report warns that 58% of security leaders expect at least half of next year’s attacks to be driven by AI agents, with ransomware victims overwhelmingly paying ransoms and recovery times slipping, even as the primary vectors remain credential theft and social engineering.