Forrester: IAM Investment to Double to $27.5B by 2029

At Forrester's 2025 Security & Risk Summit, the research firm presented data showing that global IAM investment is projected to nearly double from $13.4 billion in 2024 to $27.5 billion by 2029.

This growth is driven primarily by two factors: the need to secure machine and AI identities (which dramatically outnumber human identities), and the convergence of previously separate identity disciplines (privileged access, workforce identity, and identity governance) into unified platforms.

Forrester also highlighted machine identities as "a rapidly intensifying risk requiring immediate attention and robust governance." The Forrester Wave for Privileged Identity Management (Q3 2025) noted that PIM solutions are transforming to span human, machine, and AI agent identities as a unified security domain.

The investment data tells a clear story: the market has recognized that identity security is underinvested relative to the threat it addresses. When 79% of attacks are identity-based (CrowdStrike), 22% of breaches start with stolen credentials (Verizon), and credential breaches cost $4.81M on average (IBM), the case for doubling identity investment is straightforward.

For organizations planning their security budgets, Forrester's projection provides analyst validation for increased identity architecture investment. The market is moving decisively toward identity-first security. Organizations that lag this investment trend will find themselves increasingly exposed as attackers continue to shift from malware to identity as their primary attack surface.