A new survey from Regula, The New Shapes of Identity Threats 2026, reveals that while most organizations have tools to verify human presence during identity checks, only 48% fully trust them. The findings highlight growing challenges from AI-assisted automation, deepfakes, and generated identity evidence, shifting what businesses need from verification—not just a pass-or-fail result, but proof that a real person was present and the evidence was authentic.
Human presence becomes a critical trust signal
According to Regula's research, 76% of organizations report having technical controls designed to verify human presence. However, only 48% consider these controls reliable. The survey suggests that many organizations can verify identity evidence but remain uncertain whether that evidence was submitted by a genuine human. In practice, systems built to verify people increasingly encounter activity that behaves like a user, submits identity evidence like a user, and moves through digital journeys like a user—without necessarily involving a real person.
Face matching alone is no longer enough
The study also highlights growing concerns around biometric authenticity and liveness assurance. More than half of organizations (52%) cannot fully verify that biometric data was captured live from a real person. Meanwhile, 41% cannot always detect when identity data or signals have been manipulated. These findings reflect a fundamental shift: a face match may demonstrate similarity, but it does not necessarily prove that biometric data originated from a real person in real time. Deepfakes, synthetic identities, injected camera feeds, and replay attacks increasingly challenge traditional verification approaches.
The challenge is not detecting fakes—it is managing trust
Organizations are entering an environment where interactions may be initiated by humans, authorized AI agents, automated systems, or fraudsters using the same technologies. In this reality, the challenge extends beyond detecting fake documents, deepfakes, or synthetic identities. Businesses must determine who—or what—is behind an interaction and whether that entity can be trusted. The Regula survey underscores that as AI becomes an active participant in digital interactions, organizations must evolve their identity verification strategies to ensure they can reliably prove human-led interactions.
