Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi sits down with Okta (OKTA) co-founder and CEO Todd McKinnon at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Tech Conference to discuss the importance of cybersecurity and how AI will revolutionize the company.

McKinnon argues that "identity is as important as ever" when it comes to cybersecurity. He notes that 85% of security breaches are related to identity, and Okta helps its customers by "providing the best set of identity products across all of the identity categories." While companies are currently more careful about their spending, he explains that sometimes it takes longer for them to justify the investment into platforms like Okta. However, he remains "confident" in the company's ability to provide a return on investment.

As AI broadens throughout the market, McKinnon views the technology as a "firestorm in terms of innovation." He points Okta AI as one of the company's recent innovations, which allows organizations to build better experiences while protecting against cyberattacks. "What that really forces a lot of them to do is really further the acceleration to more modern platforms like Okta Identity or AWS for cloud. Because one thing about AI, you're not gonna get that in a legacy data center," he explains.

While the technology will spur innovation, McKinnon acknowledges that it comes with its own set of risks. He points to new security weaknesses and issues like deep fakes as potential problems ahead as AI advances. Thus, he believes that it is important to "look at what the progress is and how we can balance it out with the benefits and the costs and the risks, and work through that as an industry."

The tech sector has experienced significant volatility over the last month, and looking ahead to 2025, McKinnon says that Okta is "very focused on reigniting growth." He explains that the company will continue "doubling down on product innovation" after rolling out products like Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI. He adds, "The foundation of that acceleration is gonna be around products, and we're really excited about the product pipeline we're delivering."

After a CrowdStrike (CRWD) update caused global IT outages in July, McKinnon stresses that in critical situations, companies must be able to "communicate directly and clearly and effectively." He continues, "the second thing you have to do is make sure that you're very clear with everyone, all your constituencies, about what you're gonna change and why it happened." While it's important to roll out new updates and integrations, he emphasizes the need for it to be "tested and reliable."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl