Webinar Recap: Identity in the AI-era: A Conversation with Francis Odum and Lumos

In a recent webinar, Lumos CEO Andrej Safundzic sat down with Francis Odum, leading identity analyst and Founder of Software Analyst Cybersecurity Research, to unpack how AI is changing the identity landscape—and what security leaders can do about it.

Here are the top-level takeaways:

• Identity Is Now the Weakest Link in Security
• Identity Teams Are Drowning
• AI Isn’t Just Hype—It’s the Key to Surviving
• Visibility + Automation + Governance = The IAM Trifecta
• Consolidation Is Coming

To view the full webinar, download the on-demand version here.

Identity Is Now the Weakest Link in Security

Despite massive investments in endpoint and network security, identity has quietly become the most compromised attack surface. Francis pointed out that 75% of breaches today are identity-driven, with bad actors simply logging in using over-permissioned credentials.

“Over the last 12 months, we’ve seen the explosion of non-human identities and the role they play (in identity-related breaches).” - Francis Odum.

Identity Teams Are Drowning

Modern orgs juggle 600+ apps and thousands of identities, both human and non-human. Complexity has exploded, but IAM team capacity has not. Legacy IGA tools? Too manual, too expensive, and stuck in the early 2000s UX era.

“When we talk to IAM teams, we ask them ‘Isn’t this old news?’ And they say yes, it’s old news, but their complexity has increased 10x, but their budgets are not growing by 10x.” - Andrej Safundzic

AI Isn’t Just Hype—It’s the Key to Surviving

AI is already speeding up connector development, automating access decisions, and intelligently building RBAC/ABAC policies. The days of emailing managers to ask, “Should this person have access?” are numbered. AI is your new internal army—only faster and tireless.

“The way I look at it is a multi-step, we can use AI to make IGA or governance better, faster, cheaper, and (have) more intelligent decisions.” - Francis Odum.

Visibility + Automation + Governance = The IAM Trifecta

Andrej laid out the modern IAM equation:

• Visibility: Know who has access to what (including shadow identities).
• Governance: Define what access should look like.
• Automation: Move from “as-is” to “should-be” without burning out your team.

“Again, I don't think we're ever going to get to full automation in identity just because of the nature of identity, but at least (automation can help with) how do we cut down that level of effort and make that easier for teams to then remedy or manage this. I think that's really what we need to look for here.” - Francis Odum

AI has a role in all three—and it’s already making an impact.

Consolidation Is Coming

Expect to see IGA, PAM, and NHI tooling converge. Why? Because identity isn’t just a collection of silos—it’s a unified, enterprise-wide challenge, and it needs a platform to match.

“I see convergence in terms of NHIs. I think any vendor across the top layer needs to make sure they're solving for problems both humans as well as non-human identities, right, because increasingly in the next like five years or so, I think AI agents are going to only become much more proliferated across the enterprise and especially with our existing SaaS apps.” - Francis Odum

Watch the Full Webinar

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the insights Francis and Andrej shared in the webinar. Andrej and Francis cover all the above topics in-depth, plus more – you don’t want to miss it.

To view this informative webinar in its entirety, download the on-demand version now!

Lumos Offers the First Autonomous Identity Platform

Lumos is pioneering the autonomous identity approach. We combine full-stack visibility, AI-first governance, and user-loved automation—all in one unified platform that works for both human and non-human identities. 

Lumos is the first autonomous identity platform, designed to drive down access sprawl and empower your enterprise with increased visibility, reduced security risk, and boosted productivity.

Want to see how it works? Book a demo and take the first step toward smarter, simpler, and more secure identity management.