Andrew Shikiar, CEO of the FIDO Alliance, issued 2026 predictions forecasting that digital wallets will become mainstream while deepfake attacks and agentic AI create new authentication challenges requiring coordinated industry response.
“Deepfake attacks will continue to fuel highly personalized phishing attacks at scale, and momentum on passkeys will continue as the authentication tech becomes more embedded in enterprise and everyday use,” Shikiar stated.
With over 4 billion passkeys now securing sign-ins globally since the technology’s 2022 introduction, 2025 represented a pivotal year for FIDO as passkeys achieved mainstream authentication status. Shikiar emphasized that agentic AI will be a major factor in 2026, as AI agents are granted more responsibility and businesses must address how to integrate authentication into agentic workflows.
“FIDO aims to bring a proven collaborative model to the adjacent digital credentials landscape—working with partners including EMVCo, ISO, OpenID Foundation, and W3C to align a fragmented ecosystem—with the goal of delivering trusted, interoperable digital wallets that make everyday interactions simpler, more secure, and privacy-preserving,” Shikiar said.
The FIDO Alliance announced plans to expand its collaborative model to the digital credentials landscape, working with partners to align a fragmented ecosystem. The predictions reflect growing industry recognition that authentication frameworks must evolve to address AI-enabled threats while supporting emerging use cases like autonomous AI agents and verifiable digital credentials.
The forecast positions 2026 as a critical year for authentication and digital identity standards development, with the convergence of AI threats, digital wallet adoption, and passwordless authentication creating both opportunities and security challenges for the identity verification sector.
Sources: FIDO Alliance
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
