Why Tech Alone Won't Solve the Machine Identity Crisis

Machine identities have proliferated across enterprises, often outnumbering human identities by a ratio of 10 to 50 to 1—and that gap continues to widen. As organizations rapidly adopt cloud-native architectures, AI models, robotic process automation, and connected devices, managing and securing these non-human identities has become a critical challenge. Many enterprises attempt to solve this issue through technology alone, overlooking the need for robust compliance frameworks, risk models, and governance policies. According to Sowvik Chakrabarty, Principal at PwC and Cyber IAM Leader, this narrow approach is a core reason many programs fall short. "Where organizations struggle is when they try to tackle it with technology alone, and they don't have the right compliance framework or risk framework and applicable standards and policies that govern how these different machine identities need to be tracked and managed," Chakrabarty explained. In this exclusive video interview with Information Security Media Group at CyberArk Impact 2025, Chakrabarty explores: o The potential for agentic AI to push the ratio as high as 200 machine identities per human identity; o Why centralized governance combined with decentralized management often delivers the most effective results; o How PwC’s strategic partnership with CyberArk enables clients to address machine identity challenges at scale. With more than two decades of experience in identity and access management, Chakrabarty has helped global organizations navigate risk and regulatory pressures, build forward-looking security architectures, and align IAM strategies with digital transformation goals.