Okta’s Bhawna Singh on why firms must treat digital trust as a continuous, adaptive process

The rapid digital shift has driven businesses to embrace technological transformation, highlighting the importance of digital trust for online interactions. Okta, a U.S.-based identity and access management (IAM) provider that started its India operations in 2023, offers secure digital identity solutions to strengthen digital trust for Indian businesses. With its new Global Innovation Centre in Bangalore, Okta aims to make India a key market outside the U.S. In an interview with TechCircle, Okta’s chief technology officer (CTO) Bhawna Singh discusses the importance of digital trust for enterprises today and Okta's India-specific initiatives to drive innovation and digital transformation. Edited excerpts.

How does Okta define digital trust in the current era of AI-driven services?

At Okta, we define digital trust as ensuring every user, AI agent, or machine account is verified, has appropriate access, and is continuously monitored. This is crucial, as industry experts predict that half of GenAI-deploying enterprises will use AI agents by 2027. A recent survey done by Okta further shows that 68% of leaders in India believe new governance frameworks are needed to maintain trust in this environment. To address this, we have come up with an identity security fabric, a unified, end-to-end framework to govern both human and non-human identities. This enables organisations to secure AI agents, API keys, tokens, and service accounts with the same rigour applied to human identities, ensuring that trust is not a static checkpoint but a continuous, adaptive process.

What new challenges are emerging in the IAM space as organisations adopt generative AI, IoT, and multi-cloud environments?

IAM is a security framework that manages digital identities, authenticates users, authorises permissions, and monitors access to ensure appropriate resource access and prevent unauthorised activity. Enterprises are rapidly deploying hundreds of thousands of customer service bots, creating a flood of non-human identities that often lack MFA, use static credentials, and carry excessive privileges. Last year, only 15% of organisations expressed confidence in their ability to secure these identities. Generative AI compounds the problem, opening new attack vectors like deepfakes, AI-driven social engineering, and identity spoofing. Our survey shows 72% of executives in India expect AI to introduce new cyber risks, making it clear that traditional IAM isn’t enough.

Indian CXOs seem optimistic about AI’s role in strategy. What are some promising use cases for AI in IAM?

AI is already helping organisations in India shift from reactive to proactive security. Beyond global examples like real-time anomaly detection, automated policy enforcement, continuous risk scoring, and adaptive authentication, leaders in India are also exploring AI to automate repetitive identity governance tasks, accelerate access provisioning, and predict emerging insider threats. Today, over 70% of Indian executives view AI as improving operational efficiency and identifying risks proactively before they impact business continuity. This shows AI in IAM isn’t just about threat response; it’s increasingly about prevention and speed of execution.

How are Indian enterprises evolving their IAM approach in response to modern threats and hybrid workforces?

IAM is evolving from reactive defense to proactive intelligence via AI. Globally, this includes anomaly detection and adaptive authentication. In India, AI is automating access provisioning and predicting insider threats. Okta’s Auth for GenAI and Cross App Access facilitates secure interactions between AI agents and enterprise systems, emphasising prevention, speed, and resilience.

The continued reliance on passwords is notable. What are the roadblocks to wider adoption of passwordless and biometric authentication in India?

The biggest barriers are perception and habit. Many users still see passwords as both the most convenient and the most secure option, a view reinforced by Okta’s Customer Identity Trends Report 2025, which found that 82% of users consider passwords most convenient and 80% believe they are most secure, despite 22% admitting they reuse them across accounts. 
For enterprises, the challenge is twofold: integrating passwordless methods into legacy systems and managing the cultural shift that comes with changing authentication habits. Adoption will accelerate with broader education, cost-effective deployment, and solutions designed to meet local regulatory requirements. Ultimately, technology alone isn’t enough; success depends on building user trust and comfort with new methods.

What trends are you observing across key industries such as BFSI, healthcare, and retail in terms of identity innovation?

Identity has become the new currency of trust in India’s digital economy. In financial services, AI-powered identity systems are redefining fraud prevention and compliance. Healthcare is securing telehealth and patient records to balance privacy with access. Retail is embracing omnichannel identity to unify customer profiles, deliver seamless personalisation, and protect against account takeovers. Indian consumers are at the heart of this transformation. We further see that password adoption persists due to perceived convenience and security, despite reuse. Enterprises face challenges integrating passwordless methods into legacy systems and managing cultural shifts. Broader education, cost-effective deployment, and solutions aligning with local regulations will drive adoption. User trust is key.

What are the key trends you foresee shaping IAM in the next 2–3 years?

Identity governance is rapidly becoming essential as enterprises embrace AI agents at scale. Managing and securing these non-human actors alongside human identities is no longer optional; it is critical to maintaining trust and resilience. At the same time, adaptive authentication powered by AI is emerging as the new enterprise standard, continuously adjusting access policies in response to real-time risk signals. We are also seeing the convergence of workforce and customer identity platforms, creating a unified foundation that integrates governance, compliance, and user experience.

How does India fit into Okta’s global strategy, and what investments are being made locally?

India is both a strategic growth market and a global centre for innovation within Okta’s long-term vision. We see it as a hub where world-class engineering talent, a dynamic tech ecosystem, and a rapidly digitalising economy converge. Our investments span expanding our engineering and product development teams, strengthening partnerships with local enterprises, and delivering compliance-ready solutions aligned with India’s regulatory landscape. We are also deepening our presence in AI-driven identity innovation, ensuring Indian customers can adopt IAM capabilities without compromising on security or user experience.