Topic starter
24/06/2026 11:21 pm
TL;DR: Clarity Security says non-human identities have reached a 144:1 ratio, up 44% from 2024 to 2025, while AI-powered cyber attacks rose 47% globally and 78% of CISOs said the threat materially affects their business. Identity governance now has to cope with faster identity growth, unmanaged bots, and attack velocity that manual review cycles cannot absorb.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Clarity Security: “5 IAM Trends to Watch in 2026”.
By the numbers:
- Non-human identities have reached a 144:1 ratio, according to Clarity Security.
- Non-human identities increased 44% from 2024 to 2025, according to Clarity Security.
- AI-powered cyber attacks increased 47% globally during 2025, according to Clarity Security.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when identity governance still depends on manual ticketing for NHIs?
A: Manual ticketing breaks when non-human identities outgrow the review process.
Q: Why do AI-driven attacks force changes in identity governance?
A: AI-driven attacks compress the time available to detect misuse and reduce access.
Q: What are the signs that NHI sprawl is undermining access control?
A: Common signs include unmanaged service accounts, orphaned bots, unclear ownership, and permissions that have expanded beyond the original use case.
Practitioner guidance
- Implement unified identity governance Bring human and non-human identities under one governance model across cloud, hybrid, and on-premise environments so service accounts, bots, and AI agents are not managed in separate silos.
- Run nested entitlement reviews Inspect inherited and indirect permissions attached to NHIs so hidden access paths are identified before they become persistent attack surface.
- Deploy continuous drift detection Monitor for new identities, permission expansion, and access that no longer matches the intended role, then trigger automated remediation when drift appears.
Bottom line: Manual identity governance no longer scales cleanly to environments where non-human identities and AI-driven attacks both move faster than review cycles.
What's in the full article
Clarity Security's full article covers the trend-by-trend operational detail this post intentionally leaves at the strategy level:
- The specific actions the vendor recommends for unified governance across human and non-human identities
- The article's practical examples of access drift, shadow IT, and unmanaged AI bots
- The vendor's discussion of how AI-driven attacks change response speed and remediation priorities
- The full comparison between identity-first security and legacy network-bound thinking
👉 Read Clarity Security's analysis of 2026 identity governance trends →
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25/06/2026 8:10 am
NHI sprawl has become a governance failure, not an inventory problem. The article's 144:1 ratio is less important than what it implies: identity estates now contain far more machine actors than manual processes were designed to supervise. When service accounts, bots, and AI agents outnumber human identities so heavily, the programme is no longer managing accounts, it is managing blind spots. Practitioners need to treat unified governance across human and non-human identities as the baseline condition, not a maturity upgrade.
A question worth separating out:
A: They need both, but for different jobs. Identity reviews tell you what exists and what should still be there, while attribute-based access control helps enforce real-time decisions based on context. The practical distinction is that reviews are governance, but ABAC is enforcement. Mature programmes use both to reduce drift and limit blast radius.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity governance trends for 2026: NHI sprawl, AI attacks, trust