Thales Digital Trust Index 2026: trust gap widens in AI era
Digital trust is increasingly being shaped not by marketing campaigns or corporate promises, but by the everyday moments when people log in, share personal data or interact with AI-driven systems. That is one of the central findings of the 2026 Digital Trust Index published by Thales, which surveyed more than 15,000 consumers, business partners and IT decision-makers across multiple industries and countries.
Haider Iqbal, Director for Identity and Access Management at Thales, told MoveTheNeedle.news that the findings reveal a widening gap between the digital experiences organisations believe they deliver, and what users actually experience in practice. The research found that frustration with sign-up processes, poor authentication experiences and unclear data practices is directly affecting customer retention, digital adoption and brand confidence.
The findings arrive at a time when companies across sectors are accelerating their use of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital identity systems and automated customer interactions. Yet the report suggests that trust is not keeping pace with technological adoption. Only 23% of consumers surveyed said they trust organisations to use AI responsibly with their data, while 77% remain concerned about AI systems acting on their behalf online.
Founded in France and operating across defence, aerospace, cybersecurity and digital infrastructure, Thales has increasingly positioned itself around what it describes as trusted digital systems, particularly in areas such as identity management, encryption, cloud security and critical infrastructure.
The Digital Trust Index itself has become part of that broader positioning. Thales first launched the study in 2022 amid growing concerns over data breaches, weak cybersecurity practices and declining public confidence in how organisations handle personal information online. The original report focused on consumer confidence in sectors responsible for protecting sensitive data, finding particularly low trust levels in industries such as social media and government services.
Over time, the study has evolved beyond cybersecurity alone into a broader examination of how digital experiences shape trust, retention and commercial performance. The 2024 edition found that consumers were increasingly abandoning brands because of privacy concerns, while the 2025 and 2026 reports shifted attention towards the growing disconnect between rapid AI adoption and comparatively low public trust. The latest edition also places far greater emphasis on the commercial consequences of what Thales calls “access friction” — the delays, failed logins and complex sign-up flows that increasingly define online experiences.
The study, conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne between January and February 2026, covered respondents in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
Digital trust increasingly breaks down at login
The report argues that digital trust is increasingly won or lost during routine interactions that many organisations still treat as purely technical processes.
More than half of consumers surveyed — 57% — reported experiencing problems accessing a website during the past year. Meanwhile, 68% said they abandoned or switched providers because of slow performance or overly complicated sign-up processes.
For companies competing in digital markets, that creates a direct commercial problem rather than merely a usability issue.
“When access feels too slow or intrusive, 33% switch to a competitor or abandon the attempt, while 36% delay engagement or look for alternative channels,” the report states.
Iqbal said many organisations still underestimate the importance of this stage of the customer journey: “Many organisations still treat login as a technical checkpoint rather than a critical point of establishing trust. Friction, failures, or lack of clarity at login directly lead to abandonment, workarounds, and reduced lifetime value.”
The findings also challenge a long-standing assumption within parts of the technology industry that consumers prioritise convenience over security.
According to the research, 45% of consumers said they prefer stronger security checks even if sign-ups take longer, compared with 22% who favour faster access with lighter protections. Familiar security mechanisms such as multifactor authentication and passkeys were associated with higher levels of trust.
Passkeys — authentication methods that replace passwords with device-based cryptographic credentials — are emerging as one of the more significant themes in the report. While 68% of consumers said passkeys increase trust, only 49% of organisations currently offer them, despite 87% of IT leaders agreeing they are important.
Iqbal said the gap partly reflects the persistence of outdated systems and assumptions: “The industry has long assumed a trade-off between security and convenience. However, the data shows consumers are willing to accept friction when it feels protective and justified.”
He also pointed to legacy technology architectures, poorly designed authentication journeys and a failure to treat privacy as a core design principle.
Consumers still do not understand how their data is used
One of the more striking findings in the report is how little visibility consumers feel they have into the handling of their personal data.
Although 67% of respondents expect to be informed when data is being collected, only 16% said they have a thorough understanding of how companies collect, use and protect their information online.
More than half — 56% — believe companies place too much responsibility on customers to protect their own data.
That disconnect has become more significant as digital services increasingly rely on continuous data collection, behavioural profiling and AI-driven personalisation. While many companies have added consent banners and privacy settings in response to regulation such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the report suggests these measures have not necessarily translated into greater understanding or confidence among users.
Iqbal argued that transparency should no longer be treated merely as a compliance obligation: “Transparency should be regarded as a conversion tool by organisations,” he said. “If they clearly justify why data is needed when they collect it, they encourage completion that might otherwise be lost.”
He also highlighted “progressive profiling” — the practice of collecting user data gradually over time rather than demanding large amounts upfront — as a more balanced approach.
The findings reflect a broader shift taking place across digital business models. Over the past decade, many online platforms optimised for frictionless data collection and rapid onboarding. However, growing regulatory scrutiny, repeated data breaches and rising awareness of AI-driven profiling appear to be changing consumer expectations.
AI adoption is accelerating faster than trust
Artificial Intelligence is another area where the report identifies a widening gap between organisational ambition and public confidence.
According to the research, 93% of IT leaders said their organisations are already using, deploying or planning AI initiatives.
Yet consumer trust in those systems remains low.
Only 23% of consumers said they trust companies to use AI responsibly with their data.
The concern appears to intensify when AI systems become more autonomous. Consumers expressed significantly lower confidence in AI agents acting independently on their behalf online, particularly in areas involving identity, financial information or access permissions.
Danny DeVreeze, Vice President of Identity and Access Management at Thales, said the shift towards autonomous AI is raising more fundamental questions about accountability.
“When AI simply helps people work faster, confidence is high. But when AI starts acting autonomously and making decisions or interacting with systems on a user’s behalf, people begin asking harder questions about security, control, and accountability.”
Iqbal identified three areas where organisations are still falling short: identity assurance, explainability and data control.
In practice, that means users often do not know whether they are interacting with a human or AI system, how decisions are being made, or what happens to their personal data once it enters AI-driven workflows.
The findings also reflect broader debates taking place across governments and industry around AI governance, algorithmic accountability and digital sovereignty. In Europe in particular, regulators have increasingly focused on transparency requirements and risk-based oversight through frameworks such as the EU AI Act.
Banking pulls further ahead on digital trust
Among all sectors surveyed, banking emerged as the clear leader in consumer trust.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they felt comfortable sharing personal information online with banks, up from 44% in 2025. Banking was also the only sector where more than two in five consumers expressed high levels of confidence.
Government services ranked second at 40%, followed by healthcare at 35%. Retail, social media, entertainment and hospitality all scored substantially lower. Automotive companies ranked at the bottom with just 3%.
The gap highlights how trust increasingly correlates with perceived accountability, regulation and operational maturity.
“More regulated sectors like banking have much clearer security and resilience expectations, alongside more visible protection mechanisms,” Iqbal said.
Financial institutions have spent years normalising stronger authentication measures such as two-factor authentication, transaction verification and fraud monitoring. Consumers may not always welcome additional security steps, but the research suggests those measures can still strengthen confidence when they are implemented clearly and consistently.
Outside highly regulated industries, however, trust appears more fragile.
“For organisations outside of these sectors, trust must be earned through the quality of the day-to-day digital interactions they can build and offer,” Iqbal advised.
The contrast is particularly notable for consumer-facing digital sectors. Social media platforms scored just 9% in consumer trust, while news media ranked at 5%. That suggests industries built around data monetisation and advertising-driven engagement continue to face scepticism around privacy, transparency and platform accountability.
Digital trust is becoming an operational issue
The report also found that digital trust failures increasingly affect operational efficiency and business risk internally, not just customer relationships.
Among business partner users, only 22% received login credentials immediately during onboarding, while just 30% obtained full permissions on first access.
Those delays are contributing to risky workarounds. Sixty-six percent admitted to sharing or borrowing credentials because official processes were too slow.
That creates what the report describes as “hidden security debt”: vulnerabilities introduced not through sophisticated cyberattacks, but through operational friction that encourages insecure behaviour.
The broader implication running through the Digital Trust Index is that identity and access management are no longer confined to cybersecurity departments. Increasingly, they affect customer conversion, operational resilience, AI governance and brand credibility simultaneously.
“The future of digital trust depends on aligning operational reality with user expectation,” Iqbal concluded.
Organisations that continue to treat authentication, consent management and access controls as secondary technical issues may increasingly find those systems shaping customer loyalty, operational resilience and commercial performance more directly than expected.
Further reading on MoveTheNeedle.news:
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