Indicio enables AI agents to verify Digital Travel Credentials

AI agents are poised to take the hassle out of vacation planning. Powered by large language models (LLMs), the software assistants promise to plan trips from simple text requests, book transportation and hotels, and coordinate itineraries.

​To make that happen, AI travel agents will need a safe, streamlined way to authenticate a traveler’s identity. Decentralized identity company Indicio has presented a new software product this week that allows travelers to prove their identity to AI agents, chatbots and copilots using Digital Travel Credentials (DTC) stored in a digital wallet.

“For the first time, an AI agent can use a digital passport to identify a traveler and automatically trust their data,” says Heather Dahl, CEO of Indicio.

The capability is provided by the firm’s ProvenAI for Digital Travel platform, which equips AI agents with structured, verified information about the traveler through the Digital Travel Credential (DTC), which is based on authenticated biometrics and validated documents and follows the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) specifications.

Indicio has been testing DTCs and cross-border use cases for the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet alongside its investor SITA.

Indicio launched the ProvenAI platform last year. Aside from travel, the U.S.-based company believes that the product will find use in finance and education, whether it’s processing loan applications or assisting with student services.

The software relies on Verifiable Credentials (VCs) to provide the necessary trust for agentic AI to access and use personal data for complex problem-solving.  One of its most important benefits is that it ensures users are engaging with the correct application rather than a malicious bot.

Another is leveraging Verifiable Credentials to give users explicit consent and control over how their data is shared. In the case of ProvenAI for Digital Travel, all data sharing is by consent across secure traveler-to-agent channels.

“It allows travelers to consent to share their personal data, it seamlessly feeds AI agents and chatbots with the verified data needed for effective task performance, and it turns chat into a truly frictionless operational resource that’s also maximally compliant with data protection law,” adds Dahl.

Once the traveler presents the credential to the agent, the AI travel agent cryptographically verifies that the information in the credential is authentic. After the verification is complete, the agent can help book rental cars and airlines, find the fastest route to a destination, book a hotel or an excursion, and change reservations, the firm explains in a blog post.

Travel is the first step,” says Dahl. “The bigger picture is that Proven AI for Digital Travel shows how decentralized identity enables you to implement AI for customer interaction. By combining authenticated documents, biometrics, cryptography, and decentralized governance in Verifiable Credentials, human and non-human identity are able to  interact with each other and scale in an effective, efficient, and above all, trustable way.”

Article Topics

AI agents  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  digital travel  |  digital travel credentials  |  identity verification  |  Indicio  |  verifiable credentials