Leostream Corporation, creator of the Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, predicts changes in Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) in the coming year, driven by new realities of cybersecurity, hybridisation, AI, and more.
Passwordless moves from pilot to production
In 2026, passwordless authentication will shift from isolated pilots to full-scale enterprise adoption within privileged environments. Hardware keys, passkeys, and biometric verification will replace traditional credentials, reducing reliance on shared passwords and vaults. This transition will be driven by compliance mandates and the operational cost of credential sprawl.
As the space matures, privileged access workflows will increasingly depend on adaptive authentication policies that validate identity and device posture in real time. Vendors that offer flexible passwordless frameworks and integrations with existing IAM and PAM systems will see increased market traction. This will mark a shift in the promised end of passwords, eliminating one of the most exploited attack vectors in privilege abuse and account takeovers.
AI-assisted session security
In 2026, AI will go beyond passive monitoring and become a proactive participant in securing IT resources via privileged sessions. Machine-learning models will analyse behavioural baselines, identify and alert on anomalies, and automatically enforce policies such as session termination, masking, or step-up authentication when suspicious patterns are detected.
Instead of relying solely on human auditors or predefined rules, IAM/PAM solutions will use generative AI to summarise risky session activities, detect lateral movement indicators, and suggest remediations in real time. AI-assisted security will make privileged access oversight continuous and contextual, helping enterprises detect insider threats and compromised accounts faster than ever before. This will also move the industry toward autonomous access governance.
Browser-based and clientless privileged access
In the coming year, browser-based access methods will become more prevalent in IAM/PAM implementations. Instead of thick clients or VPN dependencies, privileged users will connect securely through hardened browsers with integrated credential injection, clipboard control, and keystroke isolation. New technical and workforce realities will accelerate this model, enabling secure privileged access from any location or device without installing agents.
Clientless architectures will reduce operational overhead, simplify onboarding for third-party vendors, and eliminate common endpoint risks as organisations seek faster deployment, easier scalability, and improved user experience.
Increase in threat-driven urgency
Compromised privileged credentials will remain the single most direct path to catastrophic data loss, and a sharp rise in targeted breaches, ransomware campaigns, and supply-chain intrusions involving administrative accounts will elevate IAM/PAM to a board-level concern in 2026. Enterprises will accelerate investments in vendor-privileged access tools to mitigate risk from contractors, managed service providers, and external support staff.
Under this umbrella, vendor PAM becomes not just a compliance checkbox, but a core resilience capability with measurable risk reduction, audit capabilities, traceability, and blockchain-style accountability.
Hybridisation of everything
The shift to cloud is hardly a trend, but the concept of hybrid infrastructure and resources will expand, and so will tools that simplify hybrid operations. Hybrid IT unifies cloud and on-premises architectures, while hybrid workforces are dispersed, remote, on-site, and everywhere in between.
Hybrid users also encompass employees plus external parties, such as vendors, and non-human machine identities (service accounts, bots, containers, APIs). A hybrid workspace provides a collaborative ecosystem for accessing data, applications, and colleagues as needed. Organisations will increasingly need solutions that can contend with the hybridisation of everything, accommodate this increased complexity, and address security risks from all angles.
“Now and into the next year, we are seeing how enterprise needs are evolving in IAM/PAM, and what tools and technologies are creating those changes,” said Karen Gondoly, Leostream CEO. “At the same time, rising cybersecurity threats force greater focus on how organisations manage the risk of user access, which is why the category is projected to grow to nearly 1$2 billion by 2030.”
The Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform for hosted desktops and workstations offers a comprehensive solution for remote access, helping maintain productivity, control costs, and ensure security through strict authentication and authorisation built on Zero Trust principles. Its connection management system eliminates clunky corporate VPNs with an ultra-efficient gateway that automatically grants users access only to the resources they are authorised to use, regardless of location or device.
Find out more at www.leostream.com
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