The healthcare landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, and AI is emerging as a powerful force. AI promises to enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and redefine care delivery by revolutionizing diagnostics and personalizing treatment plans. But as AI integrates deeper into healthcare systems, a critical question arises: how do we help ensure these advanced technologies are secure and trustworthy, especially when dealing with highly sensitive patient data? The answer lies in robust customer identity and access management (CIAM) solutions.
CIAM isn’t just a security measure; it’s the foundational fabric that helps ensure only the right people (or agents) access AI capabilities under the right conditions and with full compliance traceability.
Market momentum and the identity blind spot
AI in healthcare is no longer just hype. Providers use it to interpret medical images. Life sciences organizations accelerate drug discovery with AI-powered simulations. Payers deploy chatbots and recommendation engines to improve member services and reduce call center volumes. Personalized medicine is finally becoming real.
However, each of these use cases introduces new identity challenges because it’s no longer just about managing human users; it’s also about managing AI agents, APIs, and machine-to-machine interactions. This complexity demands an identity layer that is:
- Granular and flexible
- Auditable and compliant
- Built to accommodate both human and non-human identities
And this comes at a time when identity is stepping into the spotlight for many organizations. The global healthcare identity and access management (IAM) market is projected to grow from $1.63 billion in 2024 to $4.26 billion by 2030, according to Grandview Research. This is becoming increasingly important for those in healthcare, where data breaches remain rampant. The bottom line is that CIAM isn’t optional; it’s mission-critical infrastructure in today’s age of AI-powered, sensitive healthcare systems.
Trust is the new battleground
Healthcare organizations don’t just compete on outcomes anymore—they compete on trust. According to the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025, 74% of consumers say a company’s reputation and trustworthiness are more important than the actual quality of the product or service, and 60% of consumers are concerned about AI’s impact on the privacy and security of their digital identities.
This trust gap is especially wide in healthcare, where patients are reluctant to share personal data with AI systems they don’t fully understand or control. Identity fraud and account takeovers (ATOs) are also top of mind, with 64% of users reporting concern about identity fraud, and in some industries, up to 46% of registration attempts were identified as fraudulent according to the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025.
The implication for digital health leaders is that they can’t afford to roll out AI without first securing and governing who or what gets access, and how that access is managed and audited.
Emerging AI use cases in healthcare
Let's explore some key AI use cases in healthcare where CIAM is not just a feature but a necessity, focusing on how it empowers both healthcare professionals and patients.
Secure authentication for AI-powered diagnostics: Guarding the digital stethoscope
Imagine an AI tool that analyzes medical images for early disease detection or processes patient data for critical diagnostic insights. Access to such powerful and sensitive tools must be guarded. CIAM helps ensure that only authenticated users or partners can utilize these sensitive applications. For instance, a radiologist accessing an AI-powered diagnostic platform for X-ray analysis might be prompted to securely authenticate for an added layer of defense. This not only protects patient data from unauthorized access but also upholds the integrity of diagnostic results, ensuring accurate and reliable healthcare.
Fine-grained data access for AI-driven personalized medicine: A prescription for privacy
Personalized medicine, a frontier propelled by AI, relies on meticulously analyzing vast amounts of individual patient data to recommend highly tailored treatment plans. Here, CIAM is indispensable for implementing granular permissions. It helps ensure that AI models can only access the precise patient data they are authorized to view, safeguarding privacy and adhering to stringent regulations like HIPAA. This meticulous control builds profound patient trust by demonstrating an unwavering commitment to data privacy.
Secure deployment of AI chatbots for patient support: Your trusted digital companion
AI-powered chatbots are transforming patient support, handling everything from appointment scheduling and medication reminders to answering basic health inquiries. CIAM can authenticate patients interacting with these chatbots, which helps ensure more secure access to their limited personal information. This enables personalized, yet more secure, interactions, preventing unauthorized individuals from accessing sensitive details through the chatbot interface.
While the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025 notes that many users initially prefer human interaction (70% favored humans compared to 16% for AI agents), those who favor AI agents often cite "faster resolutions" (55%) and the "absence of human interaction" (53%). Robust implementations can bridge this gap, building trust in AI chatbots by demonstrating ironclad security and transparent data handling, proving that efficiency doesn't come at the cost of privacy.
Multifactor authentication (MFA) for sensitive AI interactions: Beyond the password
When patients interact with AI systems that handle critical patient information or make significant treatment recommendations, MFA becomes an absolute must. CIAM solutions can enforce MFA policies for these sensitive AI interactions, significantly reducing the risk of unauthorized access due to compromised credentials. We know that MFA abuse remains common, with 7.3% of MFA events detected as malicious across the Auth0 platform in 2024.
This underscores the continuous need for strong MFA implementations. By making MFA a seamless and integrated part of the workflow for healthcare professionals, perhaps through adaptive MFA that only prompts for additional verification when risk is detected, CIAM enhances security without impeding efficiency. This is crucial as attackers are increasingly targeting even strong MFA.
Secure onboarding for AI agents as "users": Giving AI its own digital ID
The introduction of generative AI and non-human identities presents a new frontier for identity management. These autonomous, goal-seeking agents need access to multiple systems to fulfill their roles. To effectively manage and secure these AI agents, a forward-thinking approach is to treat them as "users" within an identity framework. This enables secure provisioning and management of their access credentials and permissions, just like human users.
This innovative strategy allows organizations to track AI agent activity, revoke access if necessary, and ensure that AI agents operate strictly within their defined boundaries, providing a clear audit trail and enhancing accountability.
Compliance management for AI data access: Navigating the regulatory labyrinth
Healthcare is arguably one of the most regulated industries globally. CIAM features are instrumental in ensuring that AI applications accessing patient data adhere to a complex web of regulations, including HIPAA in the U.S. and GDPR in Europe. By providing robust controls and detailed audit trails for access, identity helps organizations demonstrate compliance and avoid costly legal repercussions.
Why this matters to healthcare leaders
Optimize outcomes and digital trust
Healthcare leaders understand that the promise of AI to accelerate diagnostics and enable remote care hinges entirely on secure, permissioned identity controls. Without robust identity, the incredible potential of AI to optimize patient outcomes remains unrealized due to inherent security risks and a lack of digital trust. Ensuring only authorized personnel and AI agents access sensitive patient data through strong authentication and authorization is paramount for both clinical effectiveness and maintaining patient confidence.
This goes hand-in-hand with the overall patient experience, which has become a key differentiator. Healthcare leaders recognize that secure, seamless digital experiences build real trust with patients and members. By prioritizing intuitive and secure identity journeys, organizations can foster loyalty and stand out in the market.
Meet regulatory expectations
Compliance isn't just a burden; it's a strategic advantage when managed efficiently. CIAM frameworks provide an ROI-friendly approach to compliance by supporting comprehensive audit trails and consent management features.
This proactive stance significantly reduces regulatory risk associated with data privacy laws like HIPAA and GDPR, allowing healthcare organizations to confidently innovate with AI while demonstrating accountability and protecting patient information.
Scale responsibly
The rapid emergence of generative AI and autonomous agents presents both opportunities and challenges. For healthcare leaders, foundational CIAM identity abstractions become critical to controlling access and minimizing risk as these technologies scale. Without a unified and secure way to manage the identities and permissions of both human users and AI agents, the potential for unauthorized data access or system misuse grows exponentially.
CIAM enables responsible scaling of AI initiatives by providing the necessary controls to manage who or what can access sensitive systems and data.
You can’t scale healthcare AI without CIAM
AI promises unprecedented advances in care, but without identity at its core it’s built on shaky ground. Every AI interaction—from chatbots to drug discovery—must be governed, monitored, and trusted.
CIAM platforms like Auth0 provide the security infrastructure and experience orchestration needed to responsibly scale AI in healthcare so you can innovate faster without compromising trust.
Ready to learn more? Download the Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025 and talk to a member of our team to explore how Auth0 can transform your identity strategy.
About the author
Nick Apostolu
Staff Product Marketing Manager, Healthcare