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Why This Research Matters Now
Enterprise AI adoption is accelerating rapidly. With generative and agentic AI embedded across platforms, workflows, and automation, security risk is expanding faster than most cybersecurity programs can adapt.
AI agents don’t just generate content. They access systems, invoke tools, move data, and act autonomously – often outside traditional controls.
Gartner identifies “Identity and access management (IAM) for AI agents needs strong identity governance, including access modeling to prevent privilege abuses, as well as a sustainable agent inventory and registry. Unfortunately, current IAM tools are not yet mature to support these uses.” As AI-driven autonomy increases, so does the potential for regulatory exposure, data loss, and operational disruption.
This research helps CIOs and CISOs understand how cybersecurity programs must evolve to securely support agentic AI at enterprise scale.
What You'll Learn from Gartner
In this research, Gartner outlines:
How agentic AI fundamentally changes enterprise security assumptions
Why traditional cybersecurity programs struggle with non‑deterministic, autonomous agents
Key governance principles for securing AI agents without stalling innovation
How to apply least‑privilege access models to AI-driven systems
Where visibility, detection, and response gaps commonly emerge in AI-enabled environments
Why Security Leaders Are Paying Attention
"A rapid influx of AI tools and agents adopted by employees and developers without central oversight has led to shadow attack surfaces, such as employees using unapproved AI automation in enterprise or public applications, dispersed throughout the organization.”
As AI deployment scales, security leaders face mounting pressure to:
Enable AI-driven productivity and automation safely
Reduce shadow AI and unmanaged agent adoption
Limit privilege abuse and blast radius from autonomous actions
Align CIO and CISO priorities around AI governance
Organizations that implement structured security programs for agentic AI gain a measurable advantage – accelerating AI initiatives while significantly reducing critical security incidents.
Who We Believe Should Download This
This research is designed for organizations already moving AI into production, not theoretical future-state planning.
In our view, this research is designed for leaders responsible for:
Enterprise AI risk management
Identity and access governance
Data protection and compliance
AI security architecture
Incident response and detection modernization
Gartner® Disclaimer
Gartner, How to Secure Enterprise Agentic AI Ambition, Jeremy D’Hoinne, Dionisio Zumerle, 5 January 2026
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Quisitive.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Connect with Quisitive
Want to Apply This to Your Environment?
Many leaders using this research as a starting point, may ask a practical question: “How well are we actually governing AI agents today?”
Quisitive helps enterprise organizations with real‑world execution, securing AI adoption across identity, data, governance, and operations without slowing innovation or adding internal complexity.
It would be helpful to discuss:
Where AI agents may have excessive or unmanaged access
How Microsoft Copilot, custom agents, and automation change security assumptions
What a defensible, scalable AI governance model could look like for your organization
We’re happy to have a conversation.
