Okta’s Quiet Move into Bringing Identity to AI Agents
A few months ago, when AIM spoke to Okta about AI agents in enterprises and the importance of safety and reliability, we foresaw how important this conversation would turn out to be. Now, Okta, a leader in identity and access management (IAM), has launched its Customer Identity Cloud to help developers and organisations secure identities in generative AI applications. This new feature allows customers to implement secure identity standards more easily for typical patterns in GenAI applications, improving the process of handling sensitive user data and permissions. In an interview with AIM, Okta customer identity CTO Bhawna Singh spoke about the growing need to authorise AI agents. “A platform is needed to handle both authentication and authorisation, making sure not all data is accessible to the agent,” she said. She further explained that as these AI agents interact with each other, it is essential that they have the right data access. “We need to make sure that these agents are verified,” she said, adding that this ensures that AI agents have the appropriate credentials and permissions to access data securely. “Identity platform gives an identity to the agent itself so that one agent can speak to another agent and share information in a trusting way,” she said. Citing an example, Singh explained that different AI agents often handle distinct tasks. “Let’s say you have an AI assistant for calendaring, one for booking tickets, and another for managing your stocks,” she further said. According to her, while it might seem acceptable to give a calendaring assistant full access to the calendar, granting such broad access to a stock management agent could raise concerns. Okta is integrating the authentication platform Auth0 for GenAI with popular frameworks and libraries like LangChain and Vercel, allowing developers to seamlessly authenticate users and incorporate GenAI capabilities into their applications. Another common challenge organisations face while building AI agents is managing APIs. Singh explained that many developers struggle with API integration, which can slow progress. To address this, Okta offers API management capabilities, freeing developers from repetitive tasks. “The platform does it for them, and they focus on building the AI application,” Singh explained. She further mentioned that one key feature of Okta’s platform will be its ability to integrate with popular LLMs such as Llama and Gemini. The third-party API feature enables agents to access services like Google Calendar, GitHub, and Box on users’ behalf. It uses secure protocols to ensure API credentials are tied to specific user accounts and verifies user consent for the permissions granted to the GenAI app. Okta is not alone California-based company Composio recently introduced AgentAuth, a comprehensive authentication solution designed for AI agents. AgentAuth supports over 250 apps across categories like CRMs, ticketing, and productivity tools, and is compatible with over 15 agentic frameworks, including LangChain, LlamaIndex, and CrewAI. The platform offers features such as self-hosting, white-labelling, and a unified dashboard for monitoring user accounts. “Building AI agents to interact with multiple services like Salesforce, Slack, and GitHub requires juggling OAuth flows, API keys, and permissions – an overwhelming task for developers,” said Composio co-founder Karan Vaidya. He added that AgentAuth automates these processes, handling OAuth, API keys, JSON Web Tokens (JWT) and token refresh, among others, in the backend. Okta’s Market Singh pointed out that Okta has been in the identity space for a long time with both enterprise and consumer-level customers. The company provides cloud-based software solutions that help organisations manage and secure user authentication in applications. It enables developers to build identity controls into applications, websites, web services, and devices. “We also operate in B2B SaaS (business-to-business software as a service). When it comes to identity, we don’t want to leave any market. We want to operate in every market and the adjacent markets around it as well,” she said. Research and Markets’ report on AI agents’ market analysis indicates an optimistic future for AI agents. “The AI agents market is projected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2024 to $47.1 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of 44.8% during 2024-2030,” read the report. “What we believe is that everybody is going to use AI agents,” said Singh, adding that Okta is using its existing tech stack to extend authentication and authorisation of AI agents. “We offer authentication and authorisation capabilities on our existing stack. The platform we’re developing for AI agents uses these technologies, so we’re not starting from scratch,” she explained. LangChain recently published a report surveying over 1,300 professionals, to “learn about the state of AI agents” in 2024. While 51% of the respondents said they have already been using AI agents in production, 63% of mid-sized companies deployed agents in production, and 78% have active plans to integrate AI agents. Okta in India Okta recently opened its innovation centre in Bengaluru. Singh mentioned that the company’s team size has grown threefold in the past year. “Our goal is to reach 500 in the next year,” she said. Singh highlighted the growing need for secure workforce identity solutions as tech companies in India continue to innovate. “India has the whole spectrum of where Okta has been playing in other markets. Workforce identity, which involves securing the workforce of these companies, is a high-growth space here,” she added. The company is concentrating on tackling cybersecurity challenges, which are becoming increasingly critical in India’s digital ecosystem.“Cybersecurity is becoming a top priority for everyone. As India’s tech space grows, cyberattacks and breaches will only become more challenging,” Singh concluded.
Okta is integrating the authentication platform Auth0 for GenAI, allowing developers to seamlessly authenticate users and incorporate GenAI capabilities into their applications.
A few months ago, when AIM spoke to Okta about AI agents in enterprises and the importance of safety and reliability, we foresaw how important this conversation would turn out to be.
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Siddharth is a media graduate who loves to explore tech through journalism and putting forward ideas worth pondering about in the era of artificial intelligence.