Report by Nokod
2026 State of Security in Business-Built Applications and AI Agents Survey
Key Findings
More than 50% of CISOs at enterprises agree that business users are building applications that support business-critical processes.
67% of enterprises allocate a budget for securing business-built applications and AI agents, and they expect that budget to grow by 15% in the coming year.
90% of security leaders at enterprises expect to implement governance policies for citizen development by the end of 2026.
90% of enterprises are working to standardize AI tool security.
Enterprises can track only 44% of the AI tools handling sensitive company and user data.
Over 80% of security teams at enterprises lack full visibility into the applications and AI agents created by business users.
On average, there are 4 business builders for every professional software developer in enterprises.
In some organizations, business users outnumber professional developers by as much as 10 to 1.