A new global study by Keeper Security has found that 94% of senior IT leaders in Asia Pacific report challenges managing their organisation’s growing identity footprint — above the global figure of 89% — as AI adoption accelerates the proliferation of machine and non-human identities.

The research, which surveyed 3,200 cybersecurity decision-makers across Asia Pacific, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, found that APAC respondents consistently registered higher-than-average concern across identity sprawl, AI-related risk, and integration gaps. One in three APAC respondents described the threat landscape as significantly more challenging than 12 months ago — the highest rate of any region surveyed.

Detection lags as credential misuse widens

The study reveals a significant gap in real-time threat visibility. Globally, 72% of organisations said credential misuse is not detected in real time. In APAC specifically, 22% of organisations report taking days or longer to detect credential misuse or unauthorised privileged access, while only 28% can detect such activity within minutes. A further 48% detect within hours — leaving a substantial window of exposure across the region.

Disconnected security tooling is a compounding factor. Some 96% of respondents globally cited poorly integrated tools as creating exploitable gaps, while only 36% said they had fully deployed Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions.

AI multiplies non-human identity risk in APAC

The acceleration of AI adoption is creating a new class of governance challenge. Some 53% of APAC respondents identified AI-related non-human identity (NHI) management as a top governance gap — ten percentage points above the global average of 43%. AI agents, service accounts, and automated workflows are expanding faster than the governance frameworks designed to oversee them.

Employee AI use is a parallel concern, with 62% of APAC respondents worried about staff inadvertently exposing sensitive information to AI systems, and 47% reporting limited visibility into which AI tools employees are actually using.

“AI agents, service accounts and machine identities radically outnumber human users in many environments. Most organizations lack the capabilities in their current identity security stack to govern them. Every unmanaged identity is a prime target for attackers,” said Darren Guccione, CEO and Co-founder of Keeper Security.

Despite the readiness gaps, investment intent is high: 50% of APAC respondents plan to prioritise AI security tools in the next 12 months, with 38% targeting identity threat detection and response and 34% prioritising PAM — both above their respective global averages.