Security of AI is getting together with Passkeys: Intelligent Defence Around Passwordless Login

Attack identity abuse methods are evolving rapidly beyond the pace of most security teams’ capacity to revise their strategies. AI, created phishing, deepfake help calls, and an automated fraud agent, figuring out ways to turn every login box into a very valuable target. Passkeys seem to be one of the few controls by which security of authentication can be increased and user experience simplified simultaneously in the present scenario.

The new face of identity threat: less frequent, more intelligent attackers

In the past two years, identity fraud tactics have changed from flood attacks to relatively few but highly sophisticated ones. This majorly contributor to the readily available AI tools. AI-driven generative models produce highly persuasive phishing emails, create extremely believable counterfeit IDs, and can even operate bots that adjust to verification systems on the fly.

As a result of this change, defenders now face three unpleasant realities:

• Conventional passwords are helpless against AI password crackers that can break into accounts by guessing weak or reused passwords in just a few minutes. 
• In a world of SIM swaps, malware, and large-scale phishing kits, SMS and email OTP can hardly be trusted anymore. 
• Static rules and blacklists fail to catch up with adaptive, learning, based fraud agents that test the defences 24/7. 

If identity is the new frontier, this frontier is currently being attacked in an automated, smart, and non-stop manner.

Passkeys: Why they are dominating the news

Passkeys are only just getting mass adoption, whereas FIDO2 and WebAuthn were previously only used by tech-savvy individuals. A passkey is a cryptographic credential that is stored on the user’s device (or synced via a secure cloud) and secured by a local factor such as a biometric or PIN.

When logging in, the device uses a private key to sign a challenge from the server that never leaves the device, while the server verifies the signature using the stored public key.

This model offers an array of key benefits that greatly facilitate security teams:

• Security against phishing attacks is intrinsic to the design concept: Passkeys get attached to the real domain (relying party ID), which stops hackers from using stolen credentials to gain access to dummy sites. 
• There are no secrets shared for robbers to steal: A password vault is not available for hackers to sneak out and decrypt it offline, hence the outrageous supply of data being breached is greatly diminished. 
• True MFA with one single act: Just one biometric or device unlock gesture can meet possession and inherence/knowledge factors without the need to educate users to complex flows.

The market had been watchful. By 2025, 69% of users possessed at least one passkey, and almost half of the 100 biggest websites offered passkey logins, thus fueling a passwordless market projected to grow more than twice its size by 2030. Passkeys were made the default sign, in method by Google and Microsoft, which resulted in hundreds of millions of users being put on passwordless authentication practically right away.

How passkeys blunt AI‑driven attacks

Introducing passkeys does not make AI vanish, but it effectively deprives AI of its favourite tools. Despite that, most large-scale identity attacks still revolve around deceiving a person into giving away a reusable secret or authorising a fake MFA prompt. Passkeys alter the situation from multiple angles.

1. Killing credential phishing

• The private key is always stored on the device only, and hence, nothing to steal for a phishing site or AI scam bot.
• Origin checks in WebAuthn make sure that the authentication ceremony only fulfils the legit domain and not on a pixel-perfect counterfeit.

2. Neutralising AI-powered password cracking

• As there is no password to hash, GPU clusters and AI-assisted cracking tools cannot brute-force offline.
• Now, attackers have to compromise the endpoint, the authenticator, or the account recovery flow usually much harder than attacking a password database.

3. Lowering OTP as well as push fatigue

• There are numerous regulators and financial institutions that are currently phasing out SMS OTP and email codes because these methods offer poor security.
• With passkeys, organisations can figure out how to get rid of weak OTP flows and meet the requirements for strong authentication at the same time.

For the defenders, this is a significant victory: AI remains capable of producing highly topical bait; however, that bait no longer uncovers secrets that can be used time and time again to gain access to all doors.

Where AI changes the game: Threat modelling passkey login

Although passkeys are a great strength, they are no panacea. Security architects, in fact, still have to conceive of an actual threat model, particularly when AI agents are continuously emerging as a tool in both the attack and defence scenarios.

Key residual risks include:

• Device Compromise and Malware
  • Once a hacker has complete control over the endpoint, they will be able to use the browser and the authenticator in the same way as the legitimate user; thus, they can also trigger biometric prompts.
  • Furthermore, AI, AI-powered malware might be able to automate such interaction, thus linking token theft with the immediate execution of high-risk activities by scripts right after login.

• Account recovery is becoming a serious vulnerability
  • With passwords and SMS OTP being gradually eliminated, recovery flows represent the main avenue for takeover.
  • If backup methods are not properly designed (email links, call centre overrides), they can weaken the security of passkeys by opening a way to phishing factors.

• AI agents that need access
  • Passkeys are designed to authenticate humans and devices, not autonomous AI systems.
  • The moment enterprises give AI agents the green light for accessing critical systems, they expose themselves to the risk that these agents might revert to insecure credential sharing or use API keys that are overly privileged, thus recreating the same risks that passkeys were intended to eliminate.

The question that makes sense in 2026 is not Are passkeys secure? But what new assumptions do we make once passkeys are deployed? How can AI exploit them?

Developing a smart defence: Passkeys together with AI-powered security

Flashing a passkey login alone won’t keep you a step ahead of the AI-powered hackers.

Along with the passkey, a strong, intelligent and adaptive defence system should be implemented. A door secured tight with passkeys certainly helps; however, AI is needed to keep an eye on what goes on in the house after someone gets in through the door.

Three reasonable steps become quite clear:

1. Consider new passkey events as extremely valuable signals

• Gather detailed telemetry on registration, login, failures, and device changes, then use this data for your fraud and risk systems.
• Employ models to detect and raise a flag on anomalies such as odd device fingerprints, travel that is not possible, or patterns of transactions that seem to be carried out illegally right after login.

2. Add adaptive, risk-based friction

• Allow the baseline experience to be simple: if risk is minimal, a single passkey gesture should suffice.
• But if risk rises suddenlylike a new country, a TOR exit node, or abnormal behaviorthen additional verification should be introduced (strong device binding, out-of-band checks, or transaction signing).

3. Harden the ecosystem around passkeys

• Maintain a record and refresh recovery methods so that they won’t subconsciously bring in passwords or fragile OTP channels again.
• Look over the privileged access routes (admin panels, APIs, support tools) to make sure that they are secured by passkeys or similar phishing-resistant methods and that they are observed with the same intensity.

At the same time, it is also a good idea to follow new AI security principles, like hiding AI interfaces from prompt, injection and data poisoning, to make sure that identity analytics models don’t get exposed as a weak point for an attack.

What security leaders should do in 2026

Passkeys have gone beyond being just an experiment for CISOs, IAM leaders, and product owners. They are now considered to be the new standard for human authentication. The main focus should now be on:

• Making passkeys the default user sign-in method wherever platform support is available, particularly on high-risk flows such as banking, healthcare, and payments. 

• Revising threat models thoroughly to consider AI-powered fraud agents, device compromise, and recovery abuse in a passkey-first world. 

• Publishing AI, powered monitoring, anomaly detection, and response workflows, prepared for the fact that attackers might sneak in from time to time. 

The emphasis should be on rapidly identifying and stopping the intruders once they have entered the premises. Passkeys are paramount security layers in an era where AI escalates both fraud and defence. However, they only unfold their ultimate benefits if accompanied by smart, adaptive security measures around them.