At Salesforce Connections 2025 (CNX), one thing was undeniable: agentic AI is no longer experimental, it’s operational. But as agentic AI takes the reins in commerce, one question is becoming impossible for retailers to ignore — who is behind each interaction?
In this new agentic era, retailers must have a foundation of identity and trust to stay competitive.
The Power & Risk of Agentic AI
Agentic AI took center stage at CNX. Salesforce showcased agents autonomously reallocating ad budgets, launching promotions, and powering journeys from start to finish. These systems are able to achieve extraordinary speed, personalization, and precision — but they also introduce risk at every decision point.
Consider this scenario: an AI-powered returns flow automatically approves an instant refund based on a customer’s history. But that “customer” is actually a synthetic identity built to exploit that very logic. Without a real-time identity layer, AI can enable fraud and abuse instead of accelerating growth.
What does this mean? Agentic AI isn’t dangerous, but agentic AI without identity and trust is.
Identity Intelligence: The Foundation of AI-Powered Commerce
Throughout CNX, the AI conversation kept circling back to one thing: data. But data is only as valuable as the identity behind it. Without identity context, even the most sophisticated models make flawed decisions.
Identity intelligence stitches together fragmented signals across devices, sessions, and behaviors into a single, coherent view of the individual(s) behind the interaction. It allows retailers to distinguish between a loyal shopper and a coordinated fraud ring or spot that a cart abandoner isn’t disengaged but instead dealing with an account takeover attempt.
Why does this matter? Identity turns raw data into context. Context is what powers precise personalization, smarter approvals, and revenue growth, ultimately protecting your brand and customers.
AI Is Killing Static Rules; It’s Time to Catch Up
Another prevalent theme at CNX was that today’s customer journeys are fluid. Segments change in real time and decisions are made second by second. Yet, many fraud systems haven’t evolved to keep up.
Too many retailers are still relying on rigid rules, manual reviews, or logic that can’t adapt fast enough to new threats — and fraudsters know it. They’re deploying AI tools to mimic trusted behaviors, scale attacks, and slip through outdated defenses.
The bottom line? AI commerce demands AI trust. Forter has operated with this philosophy from the start, delivering AI-driven identity and trust decisioning so your defenses evolve as fast as commerce does.
The CX Advantage You Can’t Afford to Miss
Customer experience repeatedly came up as a top differentiator at CNX. But great experiences aren’t just personalized — they’re effortless. Customers don’t want to be verified, they want to be recognized.
The best brands make that happen. They empower trusted users to move freely through checkout, loyalty redemptions, and support flows without added friction. Meanwhile, risky users are quietly flagged and intercepted before they cause you any harm.
The takeaway? Customers reward brands that know who they’re dealing with. Establishing trust in your brand can reduce friction, block abuse, build loyalty, and grow your bottom line — because we know that consumers spend more with trusted brands.
Agentic Fraud Isn’t Coming, It’s Already Here
Another message that echoed across CNX is that AI is not only powering the new phase of commerce, but it’s also fueling more sophisticated threats. We’re already seeing examples of AI-powered fraud: real-time phishing agents, social engineering at scale, and synthetic identity generation. As retailers rush to adopt agentic systems, they must also harden their defenses and reimagine trust for this agentic AI era.
Why is this important? Retailers are experimenting with AI, but fraudsters are already operating with it. AI-powered identity protection needs to be built into every point of the digital journey, from signups to returns.
A Powerful CNX 2025
Salesforce Connections 2025, confirmed what many already sense: the future of commerce is intelligent, fast, and increasingly agentic. However, success in this new landscape won’t come from the adoption of agentic AI alone. It will come from knowing who you are interacting with at every step.
Retailers leading the next wave of commerce must layer in trust and identity. At Forter, we’ve spent the last decade preparing for this shift — bringing real-time AI-powered identity intelligence into every layer of the digital customer journey.
Together, in partnerships with Salesforce, we’re helping brands bring this to life. Through seamless integration with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, retailers gain instant access to real-time AI decisioning that adapts as threats evolve.
Because the future of commerce isn’t just automation, it’s trust. And trust begins with identity.
