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Forbes

Securing The Connection Between Our Digital And Physical Worlds

Jeffrey McGregor is the CEO of Truepic, an enterprise leader in image authenticity. Why have enterprises and businesses across banking, insurance, retail and virtually every industry digitally transformed? Efficiency, cost savings, customer satisfaction and scalability are among the top drivers. Digitization isn't just a trend—it's table stakes for staying relevant and competitive in today's markets. But as organizations increasingly rely on digital content to verify the physical world, a new vulnerability emerges: trust in that content. As we move deeper into the AI era, business leaders need to ask: How can we securely digitize operations and manage change when anyone (or anything) can generate hyper-realistic digital content and threaten transformation? Nearly all fraud metrics across business, government and consumer (paywall) industries have increased in recent years, much of it fueled by AI. From deepfake photos and videos to AI-generated documents and fabricated businesses, malicious actors now have easy access to tools to undermine trust in digital processes. This is especially dangerous for businesses that rely heavily on remote verifications, automated workflows and digital content to confirm assets in the physical world, whether approving a business loan, ensuring completion of a project or verifying a supplier. The Value Of Image Pixel And Metadata Authenticity Knowing you can trust images in your workflow enables modern enterprises to reap the benefits of digital transformation and bridge the trust gap between the digital and physical worlds. Authentication technology, often referred to as provenance, helps verify the authenticity and origins of digital media. The approach leverages modern cryptography, data and image verification, and can also connect to interoperable standards (such as the C2PA standard). This helps ensure that enterprises can operate off of high-integrity and trusted digital media used to make informed and accurate business decisions. For example, operations that verify homes, businesses, vehicles, equipment, inventory or goods can benefit from this approach. Beyond security, image and data authenticity can unlock measurable business value. Efficiency in operations through digital systems allows companies and teams to reinvest their time into the higher value aspects of the workflow. Replacing a manual process, which could take several days based on the industry or inspection type, with an instantaneous image or video can yield significant benefits. For instance, in some industries, like home inspections, the ability to 'self-inspect' can lead to customer satisfaction. EXL, a company that specializes in insurance risk, survey and underwriting services, noted that 'When given the option, 80% choose the convenience of a digital self-survey' using image and data authentication. Replacing or supplementing in-person inspections or audits with secure and authenticated digital imagery is a step in digital transformation that can drive efficiency, fraud mitigation, expansion and customer satisfaction. Considering Authentication Technology Financial services companies have been early adopters of this approach, given their complex, high-volume and time-compressed transactional workflows. However, it's important to note that this approach may not be necessary for every industry or use case. There are some enterprises that may accept a level of digital fraud as 'business as usual,' while others may leverage techniques that don't require digital content, images or metadata in their workflows. To assess whether image and data authenticity are necessary for your business, there are some key questions to begin asking: Where in our workflows are we digitally transforming? And in those areas, are we relying on digital media to make daily decisions? This is the starting point from which you can begin to assess whether image authenticity can be beneficial. For example, do you perform digital assessments allowing partners to send in or upload images to confirm a process or claim? Although you may not have perceived this as a vulnerability in past years, bad actors are leveraging new AI technologies to manipulate digital media and take advantage of digital processes like this. Next, it's important to consider what information is conveyed in those images. Are you using that content to verify property, assets, businesses or anything else critical to your decision making? In some industries, such as business verification or asset-based lending, this may be necessary because you're relying on media pixels and, perhaps more importantly, their metadata to verify that the asset in question is in the location, time and status your service expects it to be in. These questions ultimately boil down to the trust in digital operations and the integrity of the data that backs them. Conclusion Balancing efficiency and trust is an increasingly demanding challenge for today's business leaders. However, investing in image and data authenticity may help bridge that gap, enabling you to transform operations both quickly and securely. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?