The customer landscape is changing, and it's happening faster than most organizations realize. The next wave of customers won't be purely human—they'll be AI agents, Machine Customers, and Custobots—intelligent automation acting on behalf of people to browse, compare, and make purchases.
This shift isn't just a minor trend; it's a fundamental overhaul of the digital economy. Organizations that fail to prepare for a world where AI-driven agents far outnumber human shoppers risk being left behind. Your survival in this hyper-automated future hinges on one critical, often-overlooked factor: your Identity and Access Management (IAM) system.
The New Digital Dilemma: Authentication for the AI Agent
It's one thing to create a compelling digital storefront; it's another to securely accommodate a swarm of non-human entities trying to transact. This brings us to the core challenge:
How will you authenticate and authorize these new AI agents—acting on behalf of humans—to interact with and buy from your business?
Your current IAM systems were built for human users, handling traditional login flows, password resets, and sessions. A Custobot doesn't need a "Forgot Password" link. It needs:
- Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Authentication: Secure, scalable protocols like OAuth 2.0 with the Client Credentials flow.
- Granular Authorization: Fine-grained controls to ensure an agent can only access the data and perform the actions authorized by its human principal.
- High-Volume, Low-Latency Performance: An agent transaction shouldn't wait in a queue behind a human's two-factor authentication prompt.
The Scalability Time Bomb
Now, consider the sheer volume. If your current IAM solution already chokes on large numbers of users or provides a poor and lengthy user experience during peak times, ask yourself:
How will it possibly hold up when AI agents and Custobots are expected to far outnumber human customers?
Unlike humans who might browse for minutes before a single purchase, AI agents can perform thousands of transactions per minute, 24/7. This transition moves IAM from a supporting function to a fundamental piece of your transaction infrastructure. A bottleneck here becomes a revenue killer. You need an identity solution designed for the scale of the internet of agents, not just the internet of people.
The Solution: Identity Built for the Future
Preparing for the AI-driven customer world requires an identity platform that offers unmatched performance, flexible deployment, and enterprise-grade security.
This is where Ory steps in.
Ory has proven its ability to scale to meet the demands of applications and sites with the most users in the world, powering identity for giants like OpenAI, Axel Springer, and Fandom, to name a few.
Ory’s open-source core and commercial offerings provide the robust, high-performance infrastructure necessary for the Machine Customer era:
- Massive Scalability: Built for modern cloud architectures, Ory can handle the rapid and high-volume authentication requests generated by thousands or even millions of AI agents without breaking a sweat.
- Flexible Deployment: Ory enables sellers to choose between self-hosted and SaaS deployment options. Whether you need the control of deploying on your own infrastructure or the simplicity and low maintenance of a fully managed cloud service, Ory offers the right fit for your security and operational needs.
- Modern M2M Focus: Ory’s architecture supports the API-first, M2M authentication patterns that AI agents rely on, ensuring secure, swift, and seamless commerce.
The AI customer revolution is here. The time to assess your identity infrastructure isn't tomorrow—it's right now. Don't let an outdated authentication system become the barrier between your organization and the massive opportunities presented by the new wave of AI-driven commerce.
Learn more about Ory solutions and how we can enable you to take advantage of the age of customer AI agents.
