Microsoft · AI Agent · OpenAI · Google · Anthropic · VentureBeat AI
Rolled together, the overlapping answers show 69% of enterprises (74 of 107) with credential sharing somewhere in the agent fleet
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◌ Single Source
Nearly half (48%) say some agents have scoped identities but many still share credentials, and another 32% say agents mostly run on shared API keys or borrowed human and service-account credentials. (Respondents could describe more than one pattern across their agent fleet, so these overlap.)
Key facts
- Technology/Software is the largest industry at 23%, followed by Manufacturing (15%), Retail/E-commerce (14%), and Healthcare/Life Sciences (13%)
- In April–May (n=110), usage was led by the same names, OpenAI's controls at 26%, Azure at 15%, AWS at 14%, Google at 12%, with every dedicated agent-security specialist at 3% or below and one in ten
- More than half of organizations (54%) have already experienced a confirmed agent security incident (18%) or a near-miss caught before harm (36%)
- Rolled together, the overlapping answers show 69% of enterprises (74 of 107) with credential sharing somewhere in the agent fleet
Summary
Across 107 enterprises, AI agents are being given real access to systems and data while the controls meant to contain them lag behind. This wave of VentureBeat Pulse Research examines how enterprises secure their AI agents: what tooling they run, how they manage agent identity and isolation, what has already gone wrong, how much they spend, and whether they believe their defenses are keeping pace with AI-enabled attackers. The central finding is an agent security gap, the distance between the autonomy enterprises are granting their agents and the controls in place to contain them. What makes the gap notable is how comfortable enterprises are inside it. VentureBeat fielded this survey as part of its ongoing Pulse Research series, this instrument focused on enterprise agent security, the tooling, identity, isolation, and enforcement controls organizations use to secure autonomous AI agents.