Enterprises deploying AI systems with excessive permissions are experiencing 4.5x more security incidents than those that enforce least-privilege controls according to a new research report from Teleport. The report warns that most enterprises are ‘dramatically underprepared’ for the security consequences.
Based on interviews with 205 CISOs, security architects, and platform leaders, The 2026 State of AI in Enterprise Infrastructure Security finds that AI is rapidly shifting into production infrastructure without identity controls keeping pace, creating a growing and measurable security gap.
The widening gap between AI adoption and AI readiness threatens to undermine the very efficiency gains organizations are chasing, says the report.
The report reveals that AI adoption is already widespread, but governance and identity controls have not kept pace:
- 92% of organizations have near-term AI initiatives in production infrastructure
- 85% of security leaders are concerned about AI-related infrastructure risk
- 59% report having experienced – or strongly suspect – an AI-related security incident
- 70% say AI systems have more access than a human in the same role
- 69% agree that identity management must fundamentally change to support AI safely.
Strikingly, access scope — not AI sophistication or organizational maturity — was the strongest predictor of security outcomes. Organizations with over-privileged AI systems reported a 76% incident rate, compared to just 17% among those that limited AI to only the privileges needed for the task at hand. This gap reflects a deeper, potentially systemic, identity risk.
Over-privileged AI systems are typically deployed on fragmented identity architectures built on static credentials and duplicated service accounts. As AI operates continuously across tools and environments, this identity fragmentation and secrets sprawl dramatically amplify the blast radius of any misconfiguration or compromise.
Confidence is not security – and may be making things worse
Contrary to conventional wisdom, the study found that organizations most confident in their AI deployments experienced more than twice the incident rate of less confident peers. Meanwhile, visibility remains dangerously low:
- 43% say AI makes infrastructure changes without human oversight at least monthly
- 7% don’t know how often AI is making autonomous changes at all.
As AI systems move toward agentic behaviour – planning, executing, and chaining actions independently – these gaps are expected to widen. 79% of organizations are already evaluating or deploying agentic AI, yet only 13% feel highly prepared for it.
Identity management emerges as a critical factor
The research points to a clear conclusion: identity is the control plane for AI security. When organizations deploy AI on top of infrastructure that relies upon static credentials and fragmented identity systems, the risk grows exponentially. A prerequisite is deploying a unified identity layer that removes identity fragmentation and secrets sprawl. The need to make this transition is evident in the data:
- 67% of organizations still rely on static credentials for AI systems
- Static credentials correlate with a 20-point increase in incident rates
- Only 3% have automated, machine-speed controls governing AI behaviour.
Without unified identity, AI systems inherit broad, persistent permissions — amplifying the blast radius of any failure or compromise.
The research findings outline a clear mandate for leaders:
- Replace static credentials with strong identity for humans and AI
- Enforce least privilege by design – not as an afterthought
- Move governance controls to machine speed, not human review cycles.
