Less than 50% of Companies Prepared for Secure AI, According to Delinea Study

A new report from Delinea reveals that only 44% of organisations consider their security architecture fully equipped to support secure Artificial Intelligence (AI), despite high levels of confidence in current security measures. The research, titled “AI in Identity Security Demands a New Playbook,” is based on a global survey of over 1,700 IT decision-makers and highlights significant gaps between organisational confidence and their actual capabilities in securing AI systems and machine identities. While 93% of respondents expressed confidence that their machine identity security is keeping pace with threats such as AI manipulation, only 61% reported having full visibility into all machine identities. Furthermore, just 48% had identity governance for AI entities, indicating a concerning lack of comprehensive oversight.

AI deployment is widespread, with 94% of companies globally currently using or piloting some form of AI in IT operations. More than half utilise generative or agentic AI, with 40% specifically employing agentic AI to enhance their security operations. The report underscores the particular vulnerability of agentic AI, which refers to autonomous AI agents capable of making independent decisions. With 66% of organisations now using agentic AI, limited oversight could expose them to risks such as unchecked decision-making and potential compromise by external threat actors. Additionally, unapproved AI tool usage, known as shadow AI, is a routine issue, with 56% of organisations experiencing it at least once a month. Despite widespread AI adoption, robust governance remains uncommon, as only 57% of organisations reported having acceptable use policies for AI tools, and just 55% stated that access controls for AI agents were in place. 

Categories: AI Security Architecture, AI Governance Challenges, AI Adoption and Risks 

Tags: Security Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Identities, Identity Governance, Agentic AI, Shadow AI, Governance Challenges, Policy Effectiveness, Security Concerns, IT Operations