Authentication is entering a new era.
For the past decade, the industry has focused on replacing passwords with stronger, phishing-resistant methods. With passkeys, that vision is rapidly becoming reality at global scale.
At the same time, digital credentials are gaining momentum worldwide, creating new ways for individuals to present verified information about themselves in a secure and privacy-preserving manner.
The common thread is clear: making it simple and trustworthy for people to present verified credentials, whether directly or through agents acting on their behalf.
That’s where the next challenge emerges.
As AI-driven agents begin to interact with services, transact, and make decisions for users, authentication and credentialing models must evolve accordingly. This means preserving user intent, maintaining strong security guarantees, and enabling interoperability across ecosystems.
These innovations also require a shift in how we approach both business processes and technology - requiring coordination across identity, AI, payments, and policy.
That is one reason I’m pleased to welcome OpenAI to the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors. Their involvement reflects a broader market coalescing around the need to align authentication, credentials, and AI, grounded in open standards and real-world deployment.
FIDO Alliance’s role is to help ensure this evolution keeps users at the center, enabling secure, simple, and trusted interactions between people, services, and the agents acting on their behalf.
If you’re working in this space, now is the time to engage. Join us in shaping how credentials are used, verified, and trusted across consumer, service provider, and agent-driven interactions.