Liminal says biometrics favored in authentication market set to be worth $38.9B

There is a lot of money to be made in customer authentication, and biometrics and digital ID firms can move into the future knowing that the market is growing rapidly. A new research report from market research firm Liminal projects a compound annual growth rate of 16.6 percent, leading to a total addressable market of $38.9 billion by 2028 (up from $18 billion in 2024).

The Customer Authentication Market Buyer’s Guide also shows that among passwordless technologies, biometric authentication is the preferred choice, with 48 percent of users favoring it in the next two years. Eighty-one percent of organizations use digital identity platforms for customer authentication, but 59 percent are unhappy with the cost, complexity and vulnerability of their current authentication systems.

Yet while these trends show the need for reliable security technologies that can evolve in tandem with cybersecurity threats, some businesses have blinders on when it comes to changing course. According to Liminal’s report, 83 percent of businesses recognize the security risks associated with traditional multi-factor authentication methods, but 74 percent still say they will continue using them for customer authentication – a balance of risk against familiarity and customer experience that looks tenable until a major security breach occurs.

As is often the case, education is an issue: despite a strong preference for biometric authentication, there is still hesitancy in adoption, credited in part to inertia. Likewise, FIDO2 passkeys are still too unfamiliar for most businesses to adopt on a timeline concurrent with the need for increasingly robust security; only 5 percent of those surveyed prioritize FIDO2 passkeys for passwordless authentication over the next two years.

AI looms over non-compliance, but market growth slow and steady

President of Liminal Jennie Berry believes that “the path forward for customer authentication is a blend of embracing new, secure technologies and ease of use with traditional methods while understanding and addressing the needs for customer education.”

But traditional methods could be rendered obsolete more quickly than expected, thanks to the emerging prevalence of AI. This, too, is on companies’ radars: per the report, “69 percent of practitioners demand continuous authentication beyond user login, citing AI-enabled anomaly detection as a must have or nice to have product capability.”

Business being business, however, not every safeguard is regarded equally. “Regulatory compliance is an afterthought in the customer authentication purchasing process,” says the report, which shows just 36 percent of companies prioritize compliance in the purchasing process, focusing instead on accuracy, scalability, and range of available authenticators.

In conclusion, the report says that “the future of customer authentication will see a surge in biometric technologies and a rise of adaptive and risk-based authentication methods.”

“The pace that companies adopt these advanced solutions will be slow and steady, as they navigate market challenges but remain willing to explore new alternatives.”

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  cybersecurity  |  Liminal  |  market research  |  passwordless authentication