Okta warns of trust gaps as AI agent deployments grow

As the deployment of AI agents keeps increasing across sectors, there are concerns about whether they are trusted by users in the execution of specific tasks. The Auth0 Customer Identity Trends Report 2025 recently released by Okta examines this question and underscores the urgent need to close the gap between AI innovation and user confidence given that AI trust is still very fragile.

In a summary of the global survey of 6,750 consumers across nine countries and anonymized operational telemetry from the Auth0 platform, the report notes that while technology is important, only organizations that prioritize trust will be able to make the difference and thrive in the world of AI agents.

The report warns that because AI is increasingly becoming a part and parcel of day-to-day digital transactions, trust must be earned, with 60 percent of those surveyed saying they were deeply concerned about AI’s impact on digital identity, privacy, and security.

To demonstrate the low trust level, the report reveals that 70 percent of users surveyed said they prefer interacting with humans over AI agents during transactions, while more than half of this percentage said their fear stems from lack of trust in AI agents with personal data.

While 60 percent of users said they are concerned about AI’s impact on privacy and digital identity security, many were of the opinion that AI deployments lack robust Identity and Access Management (IAM) mechanisms, which could result in data leaks and other forms of breaches.

Per the report, the situation of distrust is being compounded by the growing nature of identity-based attacks in several sectors, but particularly in retail and ecommerce which appears to be the hardest hit with far more fraudulent signup attempts than legitimate ones. Professional and finances services are also badly affected by fraud, according to the Auth0 report.

The publication also indicates that enhanced user experience can be a catalyst for trust in AI agents, with 74 percent of users saying they would prioritize a company’s reputation and trustworthiness over product quality. It mentions that about 38 percent of them say they would trust an AI agent with human oversight, while a high number of young users said they were open to more modern authentication systems like passkeys and biometrics.

To change the narrative and enhance trust among their customers, the report thus urges organizations and businesses to strengthen their identity layers such as the implementation of advanced identity protection tools that detect and prevent bot-based sign-up attacks, prioritize security measures that are user-friendly, adopt trust-by-design approaches to AI, and then maintain strong cross-sector collaboration.

Article Topics

AI agents  |  biometric authentication  |  consumer adoption  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  identity access management (IAM)  |  identity security  |  Okta  |  passkeys