More than half of organisations now use AI agents that can change systems, permissions or files. 59% have not integrated those agents into the same identity and access management policies that govern human users. JumpCloud published the figures today in its Q4 2026 enterprise AI access report, covering 250 IT leaders across the US and UK.
The study identifies three interconnected gaps. The identity gap: among organisations using AI agents, only 41% have fully integrated them into human IAM policies, leaving agents operating outside the governance that applies to human accounts. The proof gap: 72% report a moderate-to-large gap between what AI is allowed to access and what they can prove it actually accessed. The confidence gap: 99% are confident they can audit AI activity, but only 37% are fully prepared to do so.
92% of organisations in the study reported at least one AI-related incident or exposure in the past 12 months. More than a third were unable to determine what the AI had accessed when investigating those incidents.
The finding on high-risk actions is notable. 46% allow high-risk agent actions automatically, compared with 18% who require human approval beforehand. The research also found platform differences in auditability: 11% of Google Workspace-primary organisations fell into the lowest auditability tier, compared with 21% of Microsoft 365-primary organisations.
"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 and innovation at 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."
The report proposes an Agentic IAM Lifecycle framework to guide IT teams through discovering, registering, managing and governing AI agents alongside human employees.
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