KYA KYB KYC in The Netherlands, Cyprus, Turkey and finally London

Last month, David Birch was globe trotting again highlighting his new organising principle throughout KYA KYB KYC (know your agents, businesses and customers), this time from a zoo in the Netherlands to a hotel in Turkey via a festival in Cyprus! As is the trend right now, hot topics included digital identity (of people, businesses and things – including your future AI agent!), artificial intelligence (AI) and non-human customers and it did not disappoint! 

KYA KYB KYC at the Dutch Identity & Access Management (IAM) conference

First up, David Birch went to the Dutch IAM conference which, this year, was hosted at the zoo in Rhenen. David took to the stage just after the sea lions had strutted their stuff! David’s talk entitled “Know-Your-Agent: KYA is the next big challenge for the identity sector” covered 3 main points:

1. Developing a framework for next generation digital identity that must encompass things that exist (eg people and cars) and things that don’t exist (eg companies & AI)
2. Exploring the implications and the inevitability of legal personhood for AIs and the business implications
3. Investigating the practicality of KYC for AIs and the potential technological options for identification, authentication and authorisation in the agentic commerce environment. 

KYA KYB KYC at Reflect Festival – Cyprus

After a late flight out of the Netherlands and a very early flight out of Zurich to get to Larnaca in time, David took the stage again at Reflect festival. David spoke on the Money stage which was sponsored by his good friends at Payabl where he gave a keynote entitled “Financial Services for Non-Human Customers – The ABCs of Digital Identity: Know Your Agent (KYA), Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC)” which drew on David’s forthcoming paper in the Journal of Digital Banking, written with Jelena Hoffart from Mastercard, which looks at the demand for digital identity in a world of bots and makes some suggestions as to ways forward in this exciting new world of agentic commerce.

Following his keynote, David was joined on stage by Thekla Pascalli – CTO at payabl., Kirill Lisitsyn – CEO of Torus and Meirav Harel – Fintech Specialist at MHFintechs where the panellists went on to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the landscape of financial services, powering smarter decision-making, automating processes, and enhancing customer experiences. This panel explored the real-world impact of AI across the fintech ecosystem—how it’s being applied today, what’s needed to scale it responsibly, and where it’s heading next. From data infrastructure and compliance to ethical considerations and innovation opportunities, the session unpacked the critical questions facing fintechs as AI moves from potential to practice.

David’s observation during his sessions at Reflect festival:

“If humans are already forming romantic relationships with AI, of course they’ll use AI for their finances”

KYA KYB KYC at FIDO Alliance, Istanbul

Next up, David headed to Istanbul, Turkey to speak at a private event for FIDO Alliance members where his session, of course, focussed on ID and AI in the form of “Authentication for Agentic Commerce” and where he covered:

The new era of agentic commerce is here, what are the implications for identification, authentication & authorisation?

1. The ABC of identification

2. The practicalities of authentication

3. The need for more granular authorisation 

Later that day, David also recorded a webinar for ACI and The Paypers where he gave a keynote entitled Agentic Commerce: the final frontier for payments highlighting key issues and his organising principle: KYA KYB KYC (agents, businesses, customers). 

He was then joined by Jelena Hoffart – Mastercard, Craig de Witt – Skyfire and Philip Bruno – ACI where the team explored how agentic AI is automating financial decisions, transforming engagement across the value chain, and reshaping what it means to compete in an AI-first payments ecosystem.

KYA KYB KYC in London, UK

And finally, after a quick check in at OMFIF’s Digital Money Symposium, David headed over to K&L Gates where he was joined by good friends David Parker and Judie Rinearson for a fireside chat ‘AI and Identity: Intriguing Issues and Opportunities’, where the panel explored the use of AI for ID verification and its significant impact on digital wallets and consumer protection.