Biometric transactions to generate $315B by 2028: Prism Project

The boom in biometrics as the only reliable link between humans and their digital identities and data will continue through the next several years, according to the projects of The Prism Project from Acuity Market Intelligence.

The Project’s Biometric Digital Identity Flagship Report has been released to help guide vendors and relying parties through the complexity of an ecosystem in which maturity is seen not in zero-sum tabulation of market winners and losers,  but a diversity of technologies and approaches to deal with a wide range of specific problems and applications.

“This is the thing we’re really trying to address with the Prism: how do these things fit together? Because if we don’t explain how they fit together, then everyone thinks ‘I just need this’ or ‘I just need that,’” Acuity Principal Maxine Most tells Biometric Update in an interview.

She traces this thinking back, at least in part, to years of messaging from identity and access management (IAM) vendors telling prospective customers that single sign-on (SSO) or federated identity could solve all of their identity-related challenges.

Trends in user experience, regulatory compliance and fraud mitigation are pushing the adoption of biometrics, and growing the market towards revenues of $315 billion and 5.6 trillion transactions between 2024 and 2028. The jump in revenue represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 47.5 percent.

Despite this growth, Acuity identifies a disparity between how vendors see automation driving demand, and how relying parties are prioritizing compliance and customer experience.

Most urges vendors to listen carefully to their customers, and recounts a conversation with a compliance manager at a major relying party who said they simply could not use some of the technology being offered to them. “It’s always that balance between innovation and actually listening to customers,” she says.

That often means pitching technology that can help reduce fraud from the perspective of user experience. “You start with that customer experience because that’s what’s going to drive the high levels of use that are going to make it valuable.”

Understanding the market

Broadly speaking, the most widely adopted applications are authentication, user onboarding and access control, with relatively minimal interest in employee time and attendance, according to the Flagship Report.

The Report sets out the market position of 250 biometrics and digital identity vendors and organizations. Most emphasizes that although the reports have dozens of sponsoring vendors, they are a product of collaboration and broad consultation with players on both sides of the market, not “pay-to-play.”

Idemia, SITA and Mastercard sit in the middle of the Flagship Prism, as Identity Titans. Around them organizations are grouped into different categories as providers of Biometric Core Tech, Identity Platforms, Solutions Providers, Authentication, Identity Proofing and Verification, Decentralized Identity, Infrastructure and Relying Parties.

The inclusion of the infrastructure and relying party beams of the prism is reflective of the influence they have in a biometrics marketplace that has already advanced from the initial adoptions driven by innovation to the doorstep of mainstream use.

“Without all of that core infrastructure, you can’t have a mature marketplace,” Most points out.

The Prism is “a living research document,” and as such Most says that when Acuity was putting together the Travel and Hospitality Report, the importance of the decisions being made by the relying parties necessitated their inclusion.

Each of the Prism reports presents market players in each category as Luminaries, Catalysts or Pulsars. Luminaries are the leaders in their field, the most proficient in their application and often the organizations that set trends. Catalysts are established but attempting to rise to the Liminary category through disruption, innovation and acceleration. Pulsars are “bright upstarts and pivoting legacy vendors” with potential.

Helping people understand how they fit together, Most says, is the fundamental purpose of the reports.

“There are different types of identity transactions and interactions, and you don’t need the same technology for all of them, and that’s okay. What problem are you trying to solve, and what are the pieces.”

The report also breaks down the market by region and vertical.

Financial Services, Travel and Hospitality and Government Services Prism Reports preceded the release of the Flagship report.

Government services, including civil identity, healthcare, social services and border control will generate $202.5 billion in revenue for biometrics and digital identity vendors supporting 6.4 trillion identity transactions from 2024 to 2028, according to Acuity.

The Travel and Hospitality Prism Report forecasts a 92 percent CAGR and 263 billion biometrics-enabled transactions the industry yielding $72 billion in revenue globally over the same period.

Financial services, perhaps surprisingly, make up the smallest of the three segments, with $40 billion in revenue forecast between 2024 and 2028, according to a Prism Report released in June.

For 2025, the Prism Reports will shift to a focus on the pressing issues and challenges facing the biometrics and digital identity industry.

Article Topics

Acuity  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  digital identity  |  market report  |  Maxine Most  |  Prism Project