WASHINGTON, February 17, 2026, CyberNewswire: The Cybersecurity Excellence Awards today announced insights into the 2026 program’s early nominations, highlighting a shift in vendor focus from broad AI positioning to governance frameworks, identity architectures, and measurable accountability. This analysis, produced by Cybersecurity Insiders, is based on more than 200 submissions received ahead of RSA Conference 2026.
The Agentic AI category is one of the fastest growing categories in the 2026 program. Autonomous systems are moving from pilot to production faster than governance frameworks can keep up, creating risks ranging from the introduction of shadow AI operating outside of security oversight to autonomous agents operating unpredictably without appropriate safeguards. The nominations reflect tensions and highlight oversight mechanisms, governance structures, and operational controls designed to bridge the gap between AI adoption and enterprise security preparedness.
This pattern reflects findings across Cybersecurity Insiders’ independent research portfolio, including the 2026 CISO AI Risk Report, 2026 Cloud Security Report, and 2026 Zero Trust Report (https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/research-library/).
While research studies outline CISO priorities, nomination data highlights how vendors are responding.
•Agent AI will be split along the lines of autonomy and governance. Nominations span different platform and governance categories, including autonomous SOC co-pilots, ISO 42001-compliant governance frameworks, and human-involved safety measures. Submissions will reflect both the platforms that deploy autonomous agents and the solutions designed to manage, constrain, and monitor autonomous agents.
•Identity extends to a genealogy of identities. Identity-related nominations have shown year-over-year growth, with expanded participation in the Non-Human Identity (NHI) and Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) categories. The submission highlights identity lineage capabilities that track the origin, context, and lifecycle of machine identities across hybrid environments.
•Data security reaffirms its position as the foundation of the AI era. Nominations across the DSPM, Governance, and Security Data Layer categories place data security as a structural foundation for AI risk management, with a focus on AI-driven data access, cross-cloud governance, and visibility into policy enforcement.
“Our research has demonstrated for over a year that the governance gap around AI, identity, and data is widening. Agenttic AI is moving from pilots to production, but governance frameworks have not yet caught up,” said Holger Schulze, founder of Cybersecurity Insiders. “This year’s nominations confirm that vendors are responding now, but the market is still in its infancy. The winning vendors will be those who can demonstrate that their governance frameworks work under pressure.”
Applications for the 2026 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards are now being accepted until February 21 at https://cybersecurity-excellence-awards.com/ in advance of RSA Conference 2026.
About the Cybersecurity Excellence Award: Now in its 20th year, the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards is a global recognition program that recognizes the companies, products and professionals who advance cybersecurity around the world. Presented by Cybersecurity Insiders, the awards focus on innovation, leadership, and operational impact across the cybersecurity ecosystem. For more information, please visit https://cybersecurity-excellence-awards.com/.
About Cybersecurity Insider: Cybersecurity Insiders is an independent research and strategic intelligence platform serving more than 600,000 cybersecurity professionals worldwide. Its research analyzes how a company’s security strategy performs under operational pressure and identifies measurable gaps between intent and real-world risk exposure. Cybersecurity Insiders provides information on security decision-making, vendor evaluations, and industry benchmarking through data-driven analysis and CISO-informed insights. For more information, please visit https://www.cybersecurity-insiders.com/.
Media contact: Holger Schulz, CEO of Cybersecurity Insiders; [email protected]
Editor’s note: This press release was provided by: cyber news wire As part of our press release syndication services. The views and claims expressed belong to the issuing organization.
February 17, 2026 |News Alert |Top Stories
