In a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, Okta CEO Todd McKinnon described cybersecurity challenges that are coming up as agentic artificial intelligence models move “from prototypes to production.”
“When you move into production, what that means is you have to give them access to real systems, real data, real customer data, your customer data,” McKinnon said. “And the only way to do that securely is with Okta, and with a great identity management foundation that can manage the right access not only to your people and your customers, but also your agent.”
Okta is a cybersecurity outfit that focuses on identity management and verification. According to McKinnon, “identity is security,” and identity is increasingly important as AI agents proliferate and require access to tons of information. It’s now necessary to have a “real” security solution in place, he continued, not just one that looks “good in the demo.” While the potential for this new technology is “tremendous,” he added, the risks are high as well.
The company released its quarterly report Tuesday after close and beat on earnings and revenue. However, Okta maintained revenue guidance as management struck a more conservative tone due to macroeconomic uncertainty. Shares plummeted more than 11% in extended trading.
McKinnon told Cramer the world is a more uncertain place than it was just a month or two ago, and Okta’s conservative attitude for the next quarter or few quarters doesn’t make the company less excited about its long-term future. McKinnon also suggested that some people want long-term growth and market penetration to take place faster — but he indicated that such an expedited timeline is not always realistic.
“Sometimes these things take time to play out, and it’s prudent to have short-term conservatism with long-term optimism,” McKinnon said.
