Recent high-profile cyber breaches have exposed the vulnerabilities of UK organizations as they increasingly adopt artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. According to research from CyberArk, the integration of AI into business operations is creating a complex “triple threat,” combining the potential for AI to be used as an attack vector, defensively, and as a source of new security gaps. With cyber threats evolving rapidly, businesses must prioritize identity security within their AI strategies to enhance their resilience against these risks.
AI Elevates Cybersecurity Threats
The introduction of AI has transformed traditional attack methods, making them more sophisticated and harder to detect. Phishing attacks, which remain a primary entry point for identity breaches, have advanced significantly. These attacks now leverage AI-generated deepfakes, cloned voices, and convincing messages, posing greater challenges for organizations. In the past year, nearly 70% of UK organizations experienced successful phishing attempts, with more than a third facing multiple incidents. This indicates that even with robust training and security measures, AI’s ability to mimic trusted contacts can easily exploit human behavior.
Organizations can no longer rely solely on conventional perimeter defenses. Instead, they must adopt enhanced identity verification processes and cultivate a culture where suspicious activities are promptly reported and investigated.
Utilizing AI for Defense
While AI enhances attackers’ capabilities, it also provides new tools for cybersecurity defenders. A significant 90% of UK organizations now employ AI and large language models to monitor network behavior, identify threats, and automate previously labour-intensive tasks. This shift has allowed security teams, often small in size, to manage an increasing workload effectively.
Anticipating the growing importance of AI in cybersecurity, almost half of organizations plan to boost their spending in this area over the next year. This reflects an awareness that human analysts alone cannot keep pace with the rapid evolution of cyber threats. However, reliance on AI for defense must be approached with caution. Insufficient human oversight can lead to blind spots, making it essential for security teams to ensure AI tools are trained on high-quality data and regularly reviewed to avoid unintentional biases or errors.
The rise of machine identities and AI agents represents the third element of this triple threat. With employees increasingly using AI tools to improve productivity, non-human accounts now significantly outnumber human users—by a ratio of 100 to 1. Many of these machine identities possess elevated privileges and operate under minimal governance, which creates vulnerabilities for attackers to exploit.
Compounding this risk is the phenomenon of shadow AI, where over a third of employees admit to using unauthorized AI applications. Although these tools may enhance productivity, they can process sensitive data without adequate security measures, exposing organizations to data breaches and regulatory violations.
Addressing these risks requires more than just technical solutions. Organizations should implement clear policies regarding acceptable AI usage, educate employees about the dangers of circumventing security protocols, and offer secure alternatives that fulfill business requirements without introducing hidden vulnerabilities.
Embedding Identity Security in Digital Strategy
To secure AI-driven enterprises, organizations must integrate identity security into every layer of their digital strategy. This includes ensuring real-time visibility of all identities—whether human, machine, or AI agent—applying the principle of least privilege consistently, and continuously monitoring for unusual access patterns that may indicate a breach.
Forward-thinking organizations are updating their access and identity management frameworks to address the unique challenges presented by AI. This involves implementing just-in-time access for machine identities, closely monitoring privilege escalations, and scrutinizing AI agents with the same diligence applied to human accounts.
AI offers tremendous advantages when embraced responsibly, but without robust identity security measures, those benefits can quickly turn into liabilities. The organizations that will thrive in this evolving landscape are those that recognize resilience as essential for long-term growth. As both businesses and adversaries harness the power of AI, one principle remains clear: securing AI starts with securing identity.
