Love and hate: tech pros overwhelmingly like AI agents but view them as a growing security risk

• Nearly half of IT teams don’t fully know what their AI agents are accessing daily
• Enterprises love AI agents, but also fear what they’re doing behind closed digital doors
• AI tools now need governance, audit trails, and control just like human employees

Despite growing enthusiasm for agentic AI across businesses, new research suggests that the rapid expansion of these tools is outpacing efforts to secure them.

A SailPoint survey of 353 IT professionals with enterprise security responsibilities has revealed a complex mix of optimism and anxiety over AI agents.

The survey reports 98% of organizations intend to expand their use of AI agents within the coming year.

AI Agents adoption outpaces security readiness

AI agents are being integrated into operations that handle sensitive enterprise data, from customer records and financials to legal documents and supply chain transactions - however, 96% of respondents said they view these very agents as ...