Sharp rise in number who feel 'AI is the best defence against AI'.
Only nine percent of global businesses describe themselves as “very prepared” to defend against AI-driven threats.
According to the “AI at Work” survey from Okta, 85% of global respondents now view Identity and Access Management (IAM) as important to their security posture. While the percentage of companies using AI for security purposes slightly decreased from 71% in 2024 to 65% in 2025, the proportion of respondents who “strongly agree” with the view that “AI is the best defence against AI” rose sharply from 18% to 41%.
In EMEA specifically, the use of AI for security remains strong, with 70% of UK organisations exploring AI-driven security solutions.
The primary security concern related to AI agents over the next three years is governance and oversight, cited by 58% of organisations, followed by compliance and regulatory requirements at 50%.
“The rise of AI agents and non-human identities (NHI) underscores the urgent need for new security and governance frameworks. AI adoption is more than a technical upgrade - to maximise its strategic value, organisations must define clear use cases and build solid foundations from the start,” said Stephen McDermid, EMEA CSO at Okta.
“Whether it’s using AI for customer support interactions, sales and marketing initiatives or security enhancements, identity is fundamental to how businesses will optimise their use of AI, whilst also keeping their data safe.”
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
