As AI agents move deeper into enterprise workflows - scheduling meetings, approving transactions, querying databases, or deploying code - they are gaining access to systems and data that were once tightly controlled by humans. Each of these agents effectively becomes a privileged identity with its own credentials, decision logic, and behavioral patterns. That makes them a target.
CyberArk’s Secure AI Agents Solution directly addresses this challenge by extending its identity security capabilities to cover AI agents as a new identity class. The approach is grounded in
privilege management and ensures that every agent has access only when and where it’s needed, with full oversight and control.
Venu Shastri, Senior Director of Product Marketing for AI Solutions and Platforms at CyberArk, told MSSP Alert, “Traditional AI security models primarily focus on data protection or model behavior. At CyberArk, we take a differentiated approach centering security controls on the identity and privileges of the AI agents themselves.”
Shastri’s point cuts to the core of a new security problem: AI agents don’t just consume information - they act. And when they act with elevated privileges, the risks multiply. “AI agents are a powerful and privileged new identity class that often require elevated privileges to execute tasks, leading to risks like misuse or takeover,” he explained.
CyberArk’s Secure AI Agents Solution aims to close that gap by treating agents the same way it treats human and machine identities - with strict privilege boundaries and continuous oversight. “Our solution addresses these identity-centric risks by applying the right level of privilege controls, ensuring that agents have only the access they need, when they need it, and nothing more,” Shastri said. “This privilege-first model extends just-in-time access, least privilege, and continuous session monitoring to AI agents, securing them with the same rigor applied to human and machine identities.”
That distinction - managing AI like any other identity with privilege boundaries - is what sets CyberArk apart in a market that has mostly focused on data loss prevention or model explainability.
Preparing for Scale as AI Agent Adoption Accelerates
Enterprises are moving quickly to operationalize AI agents, but few have the privilege and identity frameworks to match. According to CyberArk’s latest CISO research, 76% of organizations expect to deploy AI agents within three years, yet fewer than 10% have adequate security or privilege controls in place.
“Our Secure AI Agents Solution is purpose-built to help customers operationalize AI agent privilege controls at scale,” Shastri said. “This is achieved through a unified, privilege-first approach that extends the proven capabilities used for securing human and machine identities to autonomous AI agents.”
He outlined how CyberArk is helping customers make that leap responsibly. “Key operational components include comprehensive agent discovery across cloud, SaaS, and developer environments; secure agent access with zero standing privileges; real-time threat detection for continuous monitoring; and full lifecycle management for compliance and audit readiness.”
The goal is to help enterprises deploy AI agents with confidence across production environments where risk and accountability matter. By anchoring everything in identity and privilege, CyberArk’s model gives organizations a practical way to scale AI while keeping control, visibility, and compliance intact.
Building Security into AI Compliance Frameworks
Governments and regulators are moving quickly to define new AI compliance standards, but the technology is evolving even faster. CyberArk is working to align privilege and identity controls with emerging frameworks such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, and the EU AI Act, ensuring customers can meet both today’s and tomorrow’s requirements.
“As a leader in Identity Security and Privileged Access, CyberArk is paying close attention to and aligning with evolving AI compliance frameworks,” Shastri said. “The rise of agentic AI is especially noteworthy, as agents become more autonomous and are granted elevated privileges to perform their actions, even as AI compliance frameworks struggle to keep up.”
He pointed to CyberArk’s new research findings, which reveal how unprepared most organizations still are. “AI agent adoption is expected to reach 76% within three years, yet fewer than 10% of organizations have adequate security and privilege controls in place,” Shastri noted. “Identity governance and privilege management are emerging as the foundation for securing this new digital workforce of the future.”
In other words, compliance is no longer just about watching what an AI system produces, but about controlling who the agent is allowed to be, what it can access, and how it makes decisions. That’s where identity security moves from a supporting layer to the core of AI governance.
How MSSPs Can Extend Identity-Centric AI Protection
MSSPs are also paying attention to how privilege management translates into new AI use cases. CyberArk’s Secure AI Agents Solution gives MSSPs a way to extend existing identity and access management (IAM) services into AI-driven environments, a natural evolution for those already managing privileged accounts and credentials for clients.
“The CyberArk Identity Security Platform is built to secure every type of identity - human, machine, and now autonomous AI agents,” Shastri said. “By extending proven controls like just-in-time access, least privilege, and continuous session monitoring to AI-driven environments, CyberArk helps organizations stay ahead of emerging risks as AI adoption accelerates.”
He added that more guidance will be available as the solution nears general availability in December 2025. “Our guidance to MSSPs is to connect with their CyberArk partner liaison to access all resources for the Secure AI Agents Solution,” Shastri said.
CyberArk’s MSP Hub already offers a SaaS-based management console that provides unified visibility across all managed environments. This allows partners to deliver identity security as a scalable service - and now, extend that same protection to AI agents. It’s a strategic opening for MSSPs to differentiate their offerings as AI adoption reshapes enterprise risk profiles.
AI agents represent a new kind of identity operating across sensitive business systems. CyberArk’s Secure AI Agents Solution makes the case that identity and privilege, not data or model tuning alone, will define how securely enterprises adopt AI. By extending its privilege-first model to these autonomous agents, CyberArk is giving organizations and service providers a way to innovate without losing control.
