The volume of digital information continues to grow. IDC estimates the world's datasphere will exceed 200 zettabytes in 2026 — far more information than most organisations can realistically govern. Availability of information is not the same as the ability to rely on it.
Repeated verification
Organisations that deal with the same people and the same facts still verify them independently. Every bank performs its own Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, often against the same government records other banks have already checked. Every supplier onboarding process repeats due diligence another organisation may have completed weeks earlier. Every insurer performs its own risk assessment and trust scoring. None of that verification work is reused.
Fraud and impersonation
Duplicated, fragmented verification creates room for fraud. SABRIC recorded R2.7 billion in confirmed financial crime losses in South Africa during 2024. Identity controls can all return "verified" — correct credentials, correct second factor, recognised device — and the transaction can still be fraudulent, because identity answers only one question (who is this) while a trust decision depends on several more (is this person authorised, is the information still valid, can it legitimately be used for this purpose).
Privacy
The conventional response to weak trust has been to collect more information: more documents, more data points, more copies held in more places. That increases privacy risk without necessarily increasing trust. A bank may only need to know that a phone number belongs to its customer, not every detail the mobile operator holds on that customer. Verification of a specific fact is often more valuable, and less risky, than broad disclosure.
AI and autonomous systems
AI systems are beginning to make recommendations, approve requests, and act on behalf of organisations. They do not remove the need for trust decisions — they multiply them. An AI system can process thousands of requests in the time it takes a person to review one. If every one of those decisions still requires rebuilding trust from scratch, the bottleneck simply moves from people to information.