The Google Cloud Cybersecurity Forecast 2026 report foresees a decisive shift: AI will become integral to both cyber offense and defense. This transformation expands the identity attack surface – where human, machine, and AI-agent identities intersect. Drawing from the report, we explore how automation reshapes attack dynamics and why identity security must evolve to govern AI agents, prevent privilege escalation, and sustain trust in automated ecosystems.
According to Cybersecurity Forecast 2026 (p.4), the use of artificial intelligence by adversaries is transitioning “from the exception to the norm,” fundamentally altering how cyber operations are conducted. Threat actors are leveraging AI to enhance “the speed, scope, and effectiveness of operations,” including social engineering, information operations, and malware development.
This means that attackers no longer rely solely on manual intrusion – they automate reconnaissance, phishing, and exploitation at scale. The report warns that actors will increasingly “adopt agentic systems to streamline and scale attacks by automating steps across the attack lifecycle” (p.4).
For CISOs, this signifies a new phase of asymmetry.
The same tools accelerating business innovation – AI models, decision agents, workflow automation – also amplify the reach and sophistication of attackers.
A particularly acute risk, described as a “present danger” rather than a future threat, is prompt injection. This form of attack manipulates AI systems into bypassing their security protocols and executing hidden commands. With the rapid integration of large language models into corporate workflows, these vulnerabilities move beyond the lab and into production environments.
As the report notes, “attackers move from proof-of-concept exploits to large-scale data exfiltration and sabotage campaigns” (p.4). The combination of accessibility and low cost makes these attacks attractive to cybercriminals seeking scale without deep expertise.
The Cybersecurity Forecast 2026 highlights a paradigm shift where identity frameworks must now extend beyond people and services to include autonomous AI agents. The report introduces the concept of “agentic identity management” (p.5).
In this model, each AI agent is treated as a distinct digital actor, requiring its own identity, credentials, and risk profile. Traditional identity and access management (IAM) systems – built around static roles and human-centric authentication – are ill-suited for such autonomy. The report foresees IAM evolving toward “adaptive, AI-driven systems for continuous risk evaluation and context-aware access adjustments” (p.5).
This evolution echoes Zero Trust principles: least privilege, continuous verification, and just-in-time access. But it extends them to machine-to-machine and AI-to-AI interactions, demanding new governance models and fine-grained privilege delegation.
By 2026, the proliferation of unsanctioned AI agents is expected to become a major enterprise risk. As described on page 6:
“employees will independently deploy these powerful, autonomous agents for work tasks, regardless of corporate approval.”
This “Shadow Agent” phenomenon mirrors the early days of Shadow IT but with exponentially higher stakes. Uncontrolled agents can create invisible pipelines for sensitive data, leading to “data leaks, compliance violations, and IP theft”.
Banning them outright is ineffective – it simply drives their use off the monitored network, “eliminating visibility.” Instead, organizations must integrate “a new discipline of AI security and governance,” embedding protection at design stage and monitoring all agent traffic with auditable controls.
The convergence of automation, identity, and governance reshapes how organizations must secure access:
These measures transform identity from a static credential system into a living control plane—critical for organizations adopting AI at scale.
AI automation will not just accelerate workflows; it will redefine trust boundaries. For organizations pursuing Zero Trust maturity, securing this new identity frontier is essential.
At Cloudcomputing, we help enterprises build identity architectures that can authenticate, authorize, and audit both humans and autonomous agents – enabling innovation without eroding control.
2026 will usher in a new era of AI and security introducing new challenges such as ‘Shadow Agent’ risks, and the need for evolving identity and access management”.
The organizations that act now – strengthening identity governance, embedding AI oversight, and maintaining visibility – will define the next standard of digital trust.