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Stolen credentials are responsible for 80% of enterprise breaches. Every major security vendor has converged on the same conclusion: Identity is now the control plane for AI security. Scale alone demands this shift. Enterprises managing 100,000 employees will handle more than one million identities when AI agents enter production.
Traditional identity access management (IAM) architectures can’t scale to secure the proliferation of agentic AI. They were built for thousands of human users, not millions of autonomous agents operating at machine speed with human-level permissions. The industry response represents the most significant security transformation since the adoption of cloud computing.
Proximity-based authentication replaces hardware tokens
Leading vendors now use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) between devices and laptops to prove physical proximity. Combined with cryptographic identities and biometrics, this creates four-factor authentication without the need for hardware tokens.
Cisco’s Duo demonstrates this innovation at scale. Their proximity verification delivers phishing-resistant authentication using BLE-based proximity in conjunction with biometric verification. This capability, unveiled at Cisco Live 2025, represents a fundamental shift in authentication architecture.
Microsoft’s Entra ID handles 10,000 AI agents in single pilot programs while processing 8 billion authentications daily. “Traditional directory services weren’t architected for autonomous systems operating at this velocity,” states Alex Simons, CVP of identity at Microsoft.
Ping Identity’s DaVinci orchestration platform pushes further. The system processes more than 1 billion authentication events daily, with AI agents accounting for 60% of the traffic. Each verification completes in under 200 milliseconds while maintaining cryptographic proof.
Behavioral analytics catch compromised agents in real time
CrowdStrike treats AI agents like any other identity threat. Their Falcon platform establishes behavioral baselines for each agent within 24 hours. Deviations trigger automated containment within seconds.
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