Headlines announcing massive investments in artificial intelligence have become routine, and there are no signs of this trend slowing down. But as Okta leaders emphasized at Oktane 2025, this moment is about far more than chips and data centers.
“We need an ecosystem and a community and a movement to really help us figure out exactly what to do,” said Todd McKinnon, CEO and co-founder of Okta, at the company’s Partner Summit.
AI’s rapid expansion is introducing a new layer of complexity across enterprise environments — one defined by agents, autonomous systems, and an explosion of digital identities that must be secured, governed, and managed. As that complexity grows, organizations are increasingly turning to partners to help translate strategy into execution.
A platform built for today’s buyers
One of the most significant market trends shaping this shift is the rise of platform-first buyers. According to Jay McBain, Chief Analyst at Omdia, today’s majority technology buyer — Millennials — approaches purchasing decisions with integration as a baseline expectation. Rather than assembling fragmented point solutions, customers are consolidating onto unified platforms that can support their full identity needs.
For partners, that consolidation represents a major opportunity.
Okta provides a broad platform for partners to build deep technical expertise and differentiated services. With multiple products designed to work together under a single architecture, partners can help customers streamline governance, reduce operational friction, and move faster than before.
In one example shared at Oktane, Okta partner Intragen helped a global food delivery company migrate from a fragmented application environment to a single identity platform.
“Within just a few months, we've onboarded over 200 applications, delivering tangible benefits … Securing their platforms with governance controls just wouldn’t have been possible in the past,” said Stephen Williams, Director of Commercial Development at Intragen.
Identity as the foundation for digital experiences
Beyond governance, another major driver of partner momentum is the demand for seamless, secure digital experiences.
As businesses across various industries seek to differentiate themselves through personalization and ease of access, identity has become a foundational element of the customer experience. Partners are helping organizations design these experiences in ways that are both intuitive for users and secure by design.
One such implementation involved a major global TV manufacturer.
“When you log in to a lot of hotels, they happen to have this brand, and when you log in, that will actually be powered by Auth0 on the backend from an identity perspective,” said Lucas Marquardt, SVP of Sales at Alchemy Technology Group, explaining how his company personalized the guest experience for this manufacturer.
Partner first, backed by investment
As AI accelerates complexity across customer environments, partners are becoming the primary guides organizations rely on to navigate identity strategy. Okta is responding by deepening its commitment to a partner-first approach — one that goes well beyond messaging.
At Oktane, the company outlined a series of financial and strategic investments to help partners scale their impact. These include expanded training and certification programs across both Okta and Auth0, enabling partners to specialize in specific technologies and build differentiated expertise.
“We are training our sales organization with partner engagement,” said Okta’s VP of the Americas & Partner Alliances Alex Valenzuela. “Partnering for success is what we've termed it. So it's our ability to bring our sales teams to our partners in the field and help ensure that we are in a position to be successful, to leverage their skillset and capability to drive those unique experiences with our customers.”
The message was clear: Partners are not an extension of Okta’s go-to-market strategy — they are central to it.
Building what comes next, together
As AI continues to redefine the boundaries of identity, security, and access, no single organization can solve these challenges alone. Success will depend on collaboration between platforms, partners, and customers, all working together to build secure and scalable systems.
Because in the end, this story isn’t just about technology. It’s about the ecosystem coming together to shape the future of identity.
