Why Okta (OKTA) Sees AI Agents as an Identity-Security Opportunity

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) is one of the best underperforming tech stocks to buy for a turnaround. The stock’s weakness has been tied to broader pressure in software and questions about whether AI will compress demand for traditional enterprise applications. Barron’s reported on April 16 that Okta shares were down 17% in 2026 and 75% from their February 2021 peak, but Raymond James upgraded the stock to Outperform with an $85 price target, arguing that AI agents could expand Okta’s identity-security opportunity rather than replace it.

The freshest company-specific support came on May 14, when Okta expanded Okta for AI Agents to support new agent ecosystems, any identity provider, and access governance across enterprise resources. The update included an integration with Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, support for non-Okta identity providers, and tools for agent discovery, registry, resource controls, deactivation, and telemetry. For a turnaround story, that matters because Okta is trying to position identity as the security layer for human, machine, and AI-agent access.

The analysts’ tone has also improved. MarketWatch reported on April 21 that Barclays upgraded Okta to Overweight, following Raymond James’ upgrade days earlier, citing rising demand for identity security in the agentic AI era.

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ:OKTA) provides workforce and customer identity solutions that help businesses and developers manage authentication, authorization, user security, and partner access.

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