AI Agent Identity Budgets Highlight Funding Gaps, Survey Finds

According to Omdia, AI agent projects are triggering markedly different budget dynamics from traditional IAM efforts, with AI agent identities demanding new governance and security measures as they move into production. The research found that 45% of IT leaders in the first half of 2025 were using a completely new, standalone budget for their AI agent projects, separate from digital transformation or other funding streams.

In January 2026, a follow-up survey of 400 identity leaders showed that 36% tapped a separate, standalone AI budget for identity security for AI agents, creating an identity “tax” on that budget to fund security layers. Other funding approaches included reallocating funds from other budgets (28%), using a digital transformation or AI initiative budget (21%), and reducing existing identity budgets (15%).

The piece notes that 45% standalone AI budgets contrasted with the 36% using them for identity security, suggesting an underappreciated funding source for AI agent identity infrastructure, and emphasises the need to educate budget holders on the importance of IAM for AI agents. May 21, 2026, Dark Reading.