Building trust infrastructure for autonomous AI

A policy document released by the WE BUILD Consortium outlines Europe's potential to establish a trusted identity framework designed specifically for AI agents. The paper, titled "Trusted Identities for AI Agents: An Opportunity for Europe," begins with the premise that agentic artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape global commerce. According to the document, "By 2030, billions of AI agents will operate across borders." While the opportunities are substantial, they arrive with corresponding risks. The rapid deployment of AI agents demands parallel advances in the digital infrastructure that underpins them, particularly in how identities are verified and authenticated.

The identity and authentication sector now faces this critical challenge. Current initiatives from organizations including WE BUILD and the FIDO Alliance point toward a convergence around EUDI Wallets, verifiable credentials, and delegated identity mechanisms as the trust foundation for agentic AI. This infrastructure will prove essential if agentic commerce is to fulfill its potential.

Passkeys offer a proven pathway

FIDO Alliance Executive Director and CEO Andrew Shikiar recently discussed how the emergence of agentic systems has prompted FIDO to expand beyond passkeys toward securing authentication for agent-based transactions. His remarks effectively outline both a technical and standards roadmap for transitioning trusted identity into agentic environments.

Passkeys represent one of technology's notable security achievements. Through cross-industry collaboration, FIDO synthesized the underlying mathematics of public-key cryptography into the passkey standard, combining technical specifications, industry messaging, and user interface guidance. This work has substantially reduced phishing attacks and advanced the goal of eliminating password-based authentication.

Shikiar explained the philosophy behind passkey rollout: "we poured a lot of time and money and research into optimizing user experience and issuing user experience guidelines. We were acutely aware that everyone's first passkey experience had to be a good one, so that they'd want to use them again." FIDO developed what Shikiar calls a "cookbook for how to roll out passkeys," helping organizations navigate adoption and establishing consistent user journeys that built familiarity and demand.

However, the transition remains incomplete. Recent research from FIDO and HID reveals that while passkey adoption is widespread, it has not yet matured at scale. The data shows 93 percent of organizations are somewhere along the passkey adoption path, yet only 13 percent have deployed passkeys at scale.

Europe sets the standard for credentials and wallets

With passkey deployment progressing, FIDO's focus has shifted toward establishing a comparable trajectory for verifiable credentials. Shikiar describes the goal as creating "a passkey moment" for verifiable credentials—combining certification programs, market development, consumer education, and branding to drive adoption.

FIDO's primary contribution will not be specification-writing. Shikiar stated: "What we're aiming to do here is not create specifications. Our core deliverable will be a certification program."

Digital credential initiatives are gaining traction globally, ranging from mobile driver's license schemes to the European Union's Digital Identity Wallet program. The EUDI Wallet has emerged as a significant driver of verifiable credential adoption in the identity sector. FIDO sees an opportunity to support interoperability and technical consistency across implementations. Shikiar noted the alliance will work to "ensure that a wallet correctly implements credential formats and presentation protocols from ISO, from OIDF from IETF and other groups, so that an issuer or relying party can can trust that a credential can be stored, managed and consumed in the way it's supposed to be irrespective of where the wallet resides."

Both FIDO and WE BUILD are treating Europe's regulatory framework as a baseline for verifiable credential standards as digital identity and the agentic economy develop internationally. Regulatory-driven shifts of this magnitude face structural resistance in the United States. Shikiar acknowledged that multiple approaches may coexist between U.S. and EU models, with countries including India, Japan, Singapore, and Australia simultaneously developing robust digital identity systems.

Across these varied approaches, one requirement remains non-negotiable. "The need for interoperability is undebatable," Shikiar said. The challenge now lies in communicating this need with the same clarity and momentum that surrounded passkeys.

Authentication becomes the next frontier

The agentic economy is still emerging. Shikiar estimates 12 to 18 months before AI agents become visibly integrated into consumer purchasing. Agentic authentication thus represents the next major hurdle for the identity sector—one piece of a larger puzzle that includes unresolved questions about liability and authority, both fundamental to agentic commerce infrastructure.

Shikiar emphasized the stakes: "we've seen the analyst reports projecting, you know, billions or trillions of dollars in value in agentic commerce. None of that will happen unless we can implement a trust layer to allow agentic commerce to happen."

FIDO's broad membership and connections to industry leadership position it to guide this transition. Major companies including Google and Mastercard have joined FIDO's agentic authentication working group and agentic payments technical working group, signaling shared commitment to establishing strong foundational standards.

Standards as shared infrastructure

Shikiar offered a perspective on standards development itself: "Ultimately, when I think about standards in general, I see them as kind of an act of collective commoditization, right? Basically saying, there's a layer of technology that doesn't really have a competitive advantage to us alone and it's better for us to all agree that this is kind of the value line that we're all going to implement on top of."

As with identity work generally, trust remains the central question. Can FIDO and similar organizations construct an agentic ecosystem that consumers understand, trust, and adopt?

The answer remains uncertain. The identity market continues to shift under pressure from regulation, AI-related threats and opportunities, and rapid technological change. Shikiar suggested this pace will not ease naturally. "Everything is happening at agentic pace, agentic scale, which means fast and crazy and breaking things. But at the same time, we need to slow down and agree upon some primitives that will allow agentic commerce to actually move at agentic scale."