By Ajay Amlani
Twenty years ago, as a co-founder and inventor of CLEAR, I helped deploy one of the first biometric traveler programs at Orlando International Airport.
At the time, the concept felt almost futuristic. The idea that your face could help verify your identity and move you through an airport more efficiently seemed like something reserved for science fiction.
Today, that technology exists and it’s proven. And yet many of the systems that millions of travelers encounter every day still operate much as they did decades ago. That matters because the United States is facing one of the largest tests of its transportation and security infrastructure in modern history.
Over the next several years, America is welcoming millions of additional visitors for events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics. These events represent tremendous opportunities for economic growth, tourism, and global engagement.
They also raise an important question: Are we prepared to move unprecedented volumes of people through our airports, venues, and transportation systems while maintaining both security and a positive experience? The answer isn’t simply hiring more people or building more checkpoints but modernizing how we establish trust.
Identity Is Becoming Infrastructure
When most people think about infrastructure, they think about roads, bridges, airports, or rail systems. Increasingly, however, digital identity is becoming a form of infrastructure itself.
Every day, travelers repeatedly prove who they are. They present IDs, boarding passes, passports, reservations, and credentials at multiple points throughout a journey. Each interaction introduces friction, delay, and operational complexity. Biometric identity technologies offer a different model.
Rather than repeatedly presenting physical documents, travelers can securely verify their identity once and move through subsequent checkpoints with greater efficiency and confidence. And the benefits extend beyond convenience.
For operators, stronger identity verification can improve security outcomes, reduce congestion, and create more predictable operations. For travelers, it can reduce uncertainty and frustration. For governments, it can strengthen confidence in the integrity of the overall system. In other words, identity isn’t merely a security issue; it’s increasingly an operational issue.
The Public Sector Can’t Solve This Alone
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned throughout my career is that meaningful innovation rarely happens in isolation. The aviation ecosystem works because government agencies, airports, airlines, technology providers, and industry organizations collaborate around shared objectives. The same principle applies to modernization.
Public agencies understandably prioritize security, privacy, and accountability. Private-sector organizations often move faster in developing and deploying new technologies. The most successful programs bring those strengths together.
Around the world, we’ve already seen examples of public-private collaboration accelerating the deployment of modern identity solutions while maintaining rigorous oversight and security standards. The United States has an opportunity to do the same. The goal shouldn’t be privatization for its own sake but rather to create frameworks that allow innovation to move at the pace of today’s challenges.
Security and Experience Are No Longer Opposing Forces
For years, organizations often viewed security and user experience as competing priorities (and anyone who has stood in a two-hour security line understands why). But modern technologies are increasingly proving that better security and better experiences can reinforce one another. When identity can be verified more accurately and efficiently, organizations can reduce friction while improving confidence in outcomes. This principle extends far beyond aviation.
The same challenge exists across government services, border management, financial institutions, healthcare systems, and countless other sectors where trust must be established quickly and securely. The organizations that thrive in the coming decade will be those that recognize security and experience as complementary goals rather than competing ones.
A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
Major events often accelerate innovation. The interstate highway system expanded in response to national needs. Airports evolved alongside growing global mobility. Digital services accelerated during the pandemic.
The World Cup and Olympics present another inflection point. These events create urgency, focus attention, and align stakeholders around a common challenge. They also provide an opportunity to build capabilities that will continue delivering value long after the closing ceremonies end.
The question isn’t whether the technologies exist. The question is whether we have the vision and collaboration necessary to deploy them effectively.
Twenty years after helping launch some of the industry’s earliest biometric traveler experiences, I remain optimistic. The future of mobility won’t be defined solely by physical infrastructure. It will be shaped by how effectively we combine trusted identity, thoughtful technology, and public-private collaboration to create experiences that are simultaneously safer, faster, and more human.
That’s a legacy worth building—not just for the World Cup or the Olympics, but for the decades that follow.
