Proof Joins FIDO Alliance to Link AI Agent Actions to Verified Human Identity

Proof, an identity authorization network that has secured over $640 billion in transactions for more than 9,000 organizations, announced it has joined the FIDO Alliance. The FIDO Alliance is the industry group behind authentication standards like passkeys and WebAuthn, and is now expanding those standards to support AI agents acting on behalf of users. Proof joins as a Sponsor member at a time when FIDO is making agent-based interactions a central priority for 2026.

A critical component of this work is verifying that AI agents are acting on behalf of authenticated users, ensuring their actions reflect genuine user intent, and that transactions remain within the boundaries authorized by users.

Agentic Commerce: From Theory to Reality

AI agents are rapidly moving from experimentation to real-world use, with the ability to make purchases, sign agreements, and execute transactions on behalf of users. This shift introduces a new class of risk.

While existing systems can verify that an agent holds a valid credential or authorization token, they lack a reliable way to prove that a real, verified person issued that authorization. Without this layer, agent-driven transactions inherit the same identity fraud and dispute challenges that already cost billions annually.

This announcement follows OpenAI’s decision to join FIDO’s Board of Directors to help shape authentication frameworks for AI agents. Google has contributed its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), and Mastercard has contributed its Verifiable Intent framework, co-developed with Google and designed to work with AP2, to FIDO.

The urgency of this problem is recognized across the industry, but a consistent way to prove the human behind those actions has yet to emerge.

Know Your Agent (KYA)

A new model is emerging for agentic commerce: proving who authorized an agent and what they were allowed to do, following the same principles used to verify identity in high-value human transactions.

Proof’s Know Your Agent (KYA) capability applies this model to AI-driven transactions. The platform verifies a person’s identity to NIST IAL2—the highest standard for remote identity proofing in the United States—and cryptographically binds that verified identity to every action an AI agent takes on their behalf.

Proof operates as a Certificate Authority, providing the infrastructure to issue PKI certificates directly to verified individuals. This means the cryptographic credential binding a person to their agent authorization is issued by the same entity that verified their identity, not handed off to a third-party certificate infrastructure. This creates an unbroken chain of trust from enrollment to every transaction the agent executes.

Proof’s combination of IAL2 identity verification and direct certificate issuance offers an important perspective as FIDO and its members explore how to establish trust in agent-driven transactions.

Shaping Emerging Standards

Pat Kinsel, founder and CEO of Proof, stated:

“FIDO has set the standard for secure, interoperable authentication, and its work around AI agents comes at a critical moment. As agents begin to transact on behalf of users, the greatest challenge will be proving who is actually behind each transaction, authorizing every move. We’ve been hyperfocused on that issue, and we’re looking forward to working with the FIDO community to make sure the highest level of accountability is built into these standards from the beginning.”

Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and CEO of the FIDO Alliance, added:

“The rise of AI agents is driving a new set of requirements for how we think about authentication, identity, and user intent. Addressing these challenges will require collaboration across the ecosystem. Proof brings a critical perspective as we continue to evolve open standards that support trusted digital interactions.”

By joining the FIDO Alliance, Proof will contribute its perspective on identity verification and authorization as the industry works to define standards for AI-driven transactions. As authentication frameworks evolve to support agents, establishing a verifiable link to a real human identity will be essential to making those systems trustworthy at scale.