New JumpCloud Research Finds AI Access Is Outpacing Enterprise Governance

News provided by

Oct 07, 2026, 13:04 ET

The report finds AI agents are gaining access to critical systems faster than organizations are extending identity and governance controls.

LOUISVILLE, Colo., Oct. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- JumpCloud Inc. today released a new study, Enterprise AI Access Is Outpacing Control. The report shows that organizations are giving AI agents access to systems faster than they can secure them. More than half of organizations now use AI agents that can change systems, permissions, or files. However, among organizations using agents, 59% do not follow the same governance rules for human users.

The study of 250 IT leaders across the U.S. and U.K. shows how organizations are managing AI as it gains greater access across the enterprise. The research also found differences in AI auditability across workplace software platforms: just 11% of Google Workspace-primary organizations fall into the lowest auditability tier, compared with 21% of Microsoft 365-primary organizations.

The findings reveal significant gaps in how organizations govern AI access and activity:

The Identity Gap: Among organizations using AI agents, only 41% have fully integrated agents into the same IAM policies used for human users, leaving 59% without full integration.
The Proof Gap: 72% of organizations report a considerable gap between what AI is allowed to access and what they can prove it actually accessed.
AI-Related Incidents: 92% of organizations report experiencing at least one AI-related incident or exposure in the past 12 months. More than one-third (36%) investigated an AI-related concern but were unable to determine what the AI had accessed.

"AI agents are quickly becoming another class of identity in the enterprise. They can access sensitive systems, change records, trigger workflows, and act on behalf of people, but many organizations still aren't governing them with the same rigor they apply to human users," said Joel Rennich, senior vice president of advanced technologies & innovation, JumpCloud. "Every agent needs clear ownership, appropriate access, and controls that follow it throughout its lifecycle. As agents become more autonomous, that foundation is what allows organizations to scale AI without losing accountability."

To solve this challenge, the report details the Agentic IAM Lifecycle framework. This guide helps IT teams discover, register, manage, and govern AI agents alongside human employees. By applying identity rules to AI tools, companies can assign owners, set permissions, and track AI actions start to finish.

About JumpCloud

JumpCloud^® is the AI-powered unified IT management platform designed to secure the modern workforce. By consolidating identity, device, and access management, JumpCloud provides intelligent, secure IT that scales from human users to autonomous AI agents. We help organizations around the globe eliminate complexity and turn AI risk into an optimized advantage, ensuring the right people and agents have secure access to the right resources at all times.