The Trust Layer for AI Agents — Ravi Bijlani, KYXStart.Ai

Send us Fan Mail Your AI agent can book a flight, move money, and open accounts on your behalf. But it can't take a selfie or hold a driver's license — so how does anyone know it's really acting for you? Arun sits down with Ravi Bijlani, founder and CEO of KYXStart.Ai, who is building the trust and verification layer for the agentic era. Ravi spent 24 years in identity and payments before betting that the real bottleneck in AI wouldn't be intelligence — it would be trust. In this conversation: – Why "card-not-present" is becoming "human-not-present" – KYC for AI agents (KYCA): verifying who — or what — is on the other end of a transaction – Binding an agent to a device and a verified human, with guardrails ("don't book a flight over $500") – The coming protocol wars between Google, Stripe, Mastercard, and Visa — and why KYXStart sits above all of them – How the business actually makes money when the underlying standard is open – The financial-inclusion endgame: identity with nothing but a phone number and a selfie Chapters 00:00 – Most organizations aren't behind on AI — they're behind on the thinking 00:41 – Meet Ravi Bijlani and KYXStart.Ai 02:50 – The gap Ravi saw: 24 years in identity and payments 05:10 – Why agents need a trust layer 06:27 – The scale: 180+ countries, billions of identities 07:50 – How this differs from managed identity and RBAC 09:30 – Static identity → signal-based identity; "human-not-present" 11:20 – Guardrails and the $500 flight: KYC for agents 13:50 – Accountability and the agent registry 15:00 – Is there a global standard? The protocol wars 18:00 – Where KYXStart plays: the trust layer on top 21:00 – Monetizing an open standard 26:40 – Diversifying: agent onboarding for banks today 30:00 – Turning it into a platform: AML and risk scoring 33:25 – Team structure: 21 people, founder's mentality 38:20 – The R&D vision: a golden record and financial inclusion 42:00 – Partnerships, the ecosystem, and the tipping point 46:20 – Close Subscribe to What Comes Next with Arun and leave a 5-star review — it genuinely helps new listeners find the show.