69% of cybersecurity professionals in North America and Europe at companies with at least 1,000 employees believe that vulnerabilities in AI agents and autonomous systems pose a greater threat to their company's security and identity systems than human misuse of AI (2026).

9 in 10 organizations are piloting or using AI in identity and access management (IAM), yet only 7% have organization-wide deployment.

88% of U.S. organizations manage two or more identity security tools, creating fragmentation that introduces blind spots.

49% of organizations identify governance gaps as a top investment priority for 2026.

54% of U.S. organizations uncover unmanaged privileged accounts and secrets every week.

Organizations now manage machine identities at a ratio commonly exceeding 100:1, with some sectors approaching 500:1.

46% are currently evaluating consolidation toward unified identity platforms.

Nearly 3 in 4 organizations in the United States have a fragmented IAM stack.

Only 1% of U.S. organizations have fully implemented a modern Just-in-Time (JIT) privileged access model.

91% of U.S. organizations report that at least half of their privileged access is always-on, providing unrestricted access to sensitive systems.

46% of organizations identify emerging identity complexities as a top investment priority for 2026.

36% of leaders are actively consolidating toward unified identity platforms.

Only 12% of organizations have achieved comprehensive automated life cycle management for machine identities.

1 in 5 organizations cite IAM skill shortages and complexity as major challenges.

89% of organizations plan to hire professionals within the next 12 months to manage or improve identity management, infrastructure, and security

20% of respondents cited lack of leadership support as a top obstacle to zero trust implementation.

27.3% of respondents cited integration issues with legacy systems as a top obstacle to zero trust implementation.

33.6% of security leaders pointed to failing to remove unnecessary privileges as a common misstep in privileged access management.

32.7% of security leaders pointed to not using a PAM (Privileged Access Management) solution as a common misstep in privileged access management

30% of respondents cited complexity of deployment as a top obstacle to zero trust implementation.