Blog | Updated October 20, 2026
by Martin Reilly, Manager Products and Offerings, Digital Identity at DXC Technology
Digital identity is no longer only about people. Applications, workloads, connected devices, bots and increasingly autonomous AI agents also require identities, credentials and carefully governed access. To that end, digital identity is becoming an essential trust foundation for identities of every type — human, machine and AI. The number of digital identity verification checks is expected to reach $175 billion globally by 2030, according to Juniper Research.
In increasingly complex digital ecosystems, digital identity ensures secure, policy-driven access to critical data and services. It's key to preventing AI-powered fraud, enabling selective disclosures of private information and driving passwordless authentication as a trust framework, while maintaining accountability, traceability and control over every interaction across users, devices and automated entities for purposes such as compliance.
When properly established, digital identity serves as a credible and trusted source of verification for online users. If implemented poorly, however, digital identity could put our privacy and the security of our personal information at risk.
Identity theft, fraud and data breaches have become prevalent, with malicious actors constantly seeking to exploit weaknesses. Now, AI-powered fraud lets criminals take things a step further, creating false documents and synthetic identities with deep fake videos and images, and voice recreations.
Modern identity security combines phishing-resistant authentication, passkeys, identity verification and adaptive controls with continuous governance of human and non-human access. Increasingly, those controls must also defend against AI-enabled impersonation, deepfakes and synthetic identities.
As AI agents gain the ability to retrieve information, invoke tools and take actions on behalf of users and organizations, enterprises need to establish who or what an agent represents. They need to take the reigns to control what it is authorized to do, and how its actions can be traced and governed. Identity security is therefore becoming a foundation for trusted AI as well as traditional cybersecurity.
Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are recognizing the importance of digital identity and are instituting frameworks to govern its use.
For example, the European Digital Identity Regulation (eIDAS 2.0) is a regulatory framework that establishes a set of rules and standards for electronic identification and trust services in the member countries of the European Union. EU member states are expected to provide at least one European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet built to common specifications by the end of this year. These wallets are intended to enable citizens, residents and businesses to prove who they are and securely request, store, share and sign digital documents.
Regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe, Australian Privacy Principles and the California Consumer Privacy Act in the United States mandate stringent data protection and privacy measures. These regulations require organizations to implement robust digital identity systems to comply with legal standards, protect user data and avoid hefty penalties.
Enforcing and auditing access policies in line with regulations is critical, not just to remain in compliance but to build customer trust in your digital interactions through privacy by design that places control of personal data in the hands of the customer. Decentralized identities that protect the privacy of citizens and consumers, allowing them to act securely across digital channels, can reduce unnecessary centralization and exposure of personal data through selective disclosure and user-controlled credential sharing.
450M+ digital identities from customers, to smart agents, to IoT devices managed by DXC.
One of the most immediate and tangible benefits for companies is the enhancement of customer experiences, with options ranging from digital wallets that allow users to decide with whom to share their verified credentials and attributes to maintaining the integrity of AI model data inputs by securely linking user preferences and behaviors across different platforms to deliver personalized AI marketing experiences.
Specific industries also can leverage digital identity to meet their own growing customer demands. Financial institutions, for instance, can rely on it to improve fraud detection and deliver passwordless authentication across platforms.
That's critical, given that passwords remain a leading cause of breaches, and authentication friction hurts adoption and increases help-desk costs. Addressing weak and forgotten passwords are both security and operational challenges.
Additionally, identity-led security will power the trusted, connected, digital future of the global automotive ecosystem, where customers want improved user experiences for trusted digital machine interactions. In healthcare settings, patients want to select care options, treatments and appointments in line with their preferences in secure, collaborative environments.
Companies that can give customers the confidence to transact safely will have a powerful edge over the competition when it comes to winning their customers' trust. To do that securely, zero trust principles, which rely on continuously verifying identities to protect systems and data, becomes essential.
Digital identity systems also provide companies with valuable data and insights — minimum necessary disclosure, consent, purpose limitation and trusted attributes — that can drive how they interact with customers.
Digital identity systems can also help companies streamline internal processes, from digitally onboarding new employees (taking the process down from days to minutes), to gaining better control over what privileged accounts exist and who has access to them, to creating future-ready digital trust platforms by placing workloads under identity-based zero trust control. In the case of manufacturing, nearly half of manufacturers are actively using industrial IoT ecosystems; they need each device to have a unique digital identity to ensure secure, reliable and scalable authentication for seamless communication and data exchange.
Creating universal digital identity systems can empower individuals who lack formal document identification, thereby giving them access to essential services such as banking, enhancing various services with digital delivery and promoting socio-economic development.
A secure and trusted digital identity has transformed the way we interact in the digital age. And it will continue to adapt and grow as AI and other technologies become more integrated into everyday life.
DXC Technology's digital identity solutions are designed to deter cyberattacks, meet regulatory compliance and nimbly adapt to new ways of doing business.
And our more than 3,200 security experts are dedicated to keeping customer data secure — every hour, every day. We take pride in securing the critical systems that organizations in different industries rely on, ensuring tailored security solutions to meet their unique needs.
Martin Reailly leads the Digital Identity portfolio team to broaden and deepen DXC's offerings globally. His focus over the last 15 years has been in digital identity and cybersecurity for clients in government and large commercial organisations. He has worked as a Solution Architect on identity and security projects, and has a degree in Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh University.
