Delinea, the identity security control plane that secures access across human, machine, and AI identities, published new research showing that Indian organisations lead globally in confidence around AI security readiness, despite significant gaps in identity governance. According to the report, “Uncovering the Hidden Risks of the AI Race,” 96.8% of Indian respondents said their identity security posture is prepared to support AI-driven automation at scale. Yet 57.6% cite AI-related environments as the area of least confidence for identity governance, the highest globally.
The survey of more than 2,000 IT decision-makers across seven countries found that India also faces one of the steepest shadow AI challenges. Some 68% of Indian respondents said they had discovered unsanctioned AI tools or agents accessing company systems sometimes or often in the past 12 months, compared with a global average of 53%. Only 27.6% said they can detect shadow AI in real time.
“India is one of the most enthusiastic adopters of agentic AI in the world, but our research shows that Indian organisations are also accepting more identity risk to fuel that speed than almost any other country we surveyed,” said Anand (Jude) Kannabiran, Vice President, Asia, Delinea. “The gap between confidence and governance reality is widest here, and that is precisely where attackers will look to gain a foothold. The organisations that will win in India’s AI era are those that treat identity governance not as a brake on innovation, but as the foundation that makes sustainable innovation possible.”
The AI security confidence paradox
India illustrates the global AI security confidence paradox in its most concentrated form. 51.6% of Indian respondents say they are “very prepared,” compared with a global average of 35.9%. Indian respondents also rate their confidence in discovering NHIs with access to production systems at 90.4%, the highest of any country. Only 7% of Indian respondents report no measurable business impact from identity-related friction in the past 12 months, the joint-lowest figure of any country, with 46% citing delayed AI initiatives and 45.2% citing increased operational costs.
Additional key findings from the report include:
- Pressure to loosen controls is highest in India: 93.6% percent of Indian respondents report organisational pressure on security teams to weaken privileged access controls to support AI-driven automation, the highest net pressure of all seven countries surveyed.
- Speed wins over security: 43% say that when security requirements conflict with business speed, the most common outcome involves granting standing privileges, bypassing controls via shadow use, or temporarily disabling controls.
- Standing access remains the norm: 42% of Indian respondents say static, long-lived credentials are the primary way access is enforced for NHI and AI agent identities, tied with the United States as the highest globally.
As AI agents begin accessing critical infrastructure and enterprise data, organizations need stronger ways to discover all identities, manage privileges, and audit activity across humans, machines, and AI agents. Delinea delivers a unified approach by combining cryptographic identity, contextual access controls, JIT runtime authorization, and full session visibility to ensure AI-driven automation operates securely and transparently. By providing a single access experience across infrastructure with built-in auditing and least-privilege enforcement, Delinea enables organizations to adopt AI without introducing unmanaged access risk.