Organisations across Asia Pacific are rapidly adopting AI and automation, but many lack the identity controls needed to manage this shift securely, according to new data from Okta’s Businesses at Work 2026 report.
As AI adoption accelerates, non-human identities, including AI agents, bots and service accounts, are expanding rapidly across enterprise environments and can outnumber human users by as much as 45 to 1.
Despite this, only around 10% of organisations report having identity systems fully equipped to manage and secure these identities, highlighting a growing gap between adoption and control.
Governance and accountability are also emerging as key challenges. As AI becomes more embedded in business operations, many organisations are still early in defining ownership for AI security, increasing the risk of unmanaged or ‘shadow’ AI activity.
Across APAC, organisations are balancing rapid AI adoption with an increasing focus on security and governance. As automation scales, identity and access management is becoming a critical control point, with security applications among the fastest-growing categories in many organisations’ technology stacks.
The findings reinforce the growing importance of identity as the foundation for securing AI. As organisations continue to scale adoption, extending visibility, access controls and governance across both human and non-human identities will be critical to maintaining trust and control.
