Harnessing AI to secure the future of identity

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer something organizations can keep at arm’s length. It is now shaping how work gets done, who or what has access to critical systems, and how identity itself must be defined.

For years, identity management revolved around employees, contractors, and a handful of privileged users. Today, partners and resellers are watching a very different picture emerge: automated processes, bots, and AI agents acting in place of people, with the same level of autonomy but often greater levels of access and much more rapidly.

Customers are adopting AI capabilities at speed, often discovering their value at the same time as they uncover new risks, and in many cases, this adoption is done outside of IT-approved systems, somewhat mimicking the challenges of “shadow IT”. However, every AI-driven process, every automated decision, and every machine identity added to an environment widens the attack surface. In some businesses, non-human identities already outnumber human ones by a staggering margin, creating fresh pressure on teams that were already stretched.

For the channel, this isn’t just another industry shift; it’s a pivotal moment. Partners are in a unique position to help organizations strengthen identity foundations now, while preparing them for what comes next. That means guiding customers through the rise of AI agents, tightening governance around machine access, and ensuring identity becomes the anchor point for wider security strategies.

But how can channel partners guide the organizations they serve in making the necessary adjustments to ensure their systems are fully “AI-ready” and secure?

Support is needed

Identity and AI are converging far faster than many organizations had expected. What once felt like a consideration for the future has already become part of daily operations. Each new AI system, automation workflow, or digital process introduces yet another identity to manage. Without clear governance, this growing mix of human and non-human identities can quickly tip into unnecessary risk.

This is precisely why organizations need support, and why the channel’s role is so critical.

Partners must help customers navigate the shift towards AI-driven ways of working, especially when identity and access management are at stake. This involves guiding them through the rapid rise of non-human identities and AI agents, and making sure these identities are governed just as rigorously as those belonging to people.

Many organizations face two persistent challenges: they struggle to onboard and manage all their applications effectively, and they lack a secure, consistent way to govern every identity, whether human, machine, or AI-based. Addressing these issues is essential if organizations are to build strong foundations and prepare for the impact AI will continue to have across their systems and processes.

For partners, providing clarity, direction, and practical expertise will be key at a time when customers urgently need it.

Educating and becoming design partners

As organizations struggle with these challenges, partners have a clear opportunity to step in with guidance that goes beyond simply supplying a solution.

Partners are increasingly expected to take on an advisory role, educating customers about emerging risks that may not yet be fully understood. AI agent impersonation, for example, is no longer a theoretical threat; as AI systems gain autonomy, the risk of malicious actors mimicking legitimate machine identities becomes very real.

Privilege sprawl is another growing concern, with AI and automation rapidly generating permissions at a pace that many organizations cannot manually track.

Providing awareness is only the first step. Customers also need partners who will co-develop solutions, acting almost as design partners, to help them build stronger identity foundations. This means working together on capabilities such as posture management for AI identities, or supporting the development of automated onboarding processes that can keep up with the speed of modern digital operations.

When partners co-innovate with customers, they help create approaches that are both practical and grounded in real-world environments, rather than theoretical best guesses.

Integrations and onboarding

As mentioned, another major area where organizations need assistance is integration and onboarding. Many are drowning in disjointed applications, legacy systems, and one-off workflows that make any form of consistent identity governance extremely difficult.

The cost and effort involved in pulling these systems together often slow down transformation projects or, worse, leave critical applications outside formal identity controls entirely.

Here, partners can make a tangible difference by helping customers automate integration by actually using AI agents, reducing the heavy manual lift that traditionally accompanies these projects.

Automating application onboarding doesn’t just save time; it improves compliance by ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks, and it ensures that identity governance extends universally rather than selectively.

Bridging the gap between identity management and security strategy

Identity management can no longer operate in isolation. Partners must also help customers bridge the long-standing gap between identity management and the rest of their security strategy. Identity is now the thread that runs through cloud environments, hybrid infrastructures, and distributed workforces.

Helping customers gain a clear view of risk across all identity types, human, non-human, and AI, enables them to build a security posture that is cohesive rather than piecemeal.

Partners who can translate identity insights into broader security and compliance outcomes will become invaluable.

AI data quality

Finally, nothing in the AI-driven identity world works without high-quality data. Partners should champion the importance of clean, structured, and well-governed identity data so that organizations can trust the decisions and automations that AI produces.

Poor data results in poor outputs, whether that’s inaccurate access decisions, faulty analytics, or gaps in compliance. Supporting customers with data hygiene, audit readiness, and governance frameworks ensures they are genuinely “AI-ready”, not just AI-enabled on paper.

AI will continue to shape the way identities are created, used, and governed, and the channel’s role in this unstoppable trend has never been more important. Partners who step up now, educating, innovating, and guiding customers through this shift, will be the ones helping to secure the future of identity for years to come.