As fraud escalates and digital interactions grow more complex, businesses are under mounting pressure to verify who they're talking to — without making the experience harder for legitimate customers. Network-powered solutions are emerging as a powerful new layer in the digital trust toolkit, giving enterprises direct access to real-time mobile network intelligence to authenticate users, detect fraud signals, and streamline customer journeys — all invisibly, in the background.

In this episode, Kunal Shukla, SVP & GM, Head of Networks APIs on behalf of Vonage — winner of The Fast Mode's inaugural Digital Identity Innovator award — joins the conversation to explore how network-powered solutions like the Vonage Identity Insights API are redefining what's possible in digital identity.

Kunal also delves into:

• How the team at Vonage feels about winning the inaugural Digital Identity Innovator award
• Why digital identity has reached a critical inflection point now
• What network APIs deliver and how do they offer a better approach to trust and authentication than traditional solutions
• What makes the Vonage Identity Insights API unique, and how do features like SIM Swap detection and Subscriber Match deliver both security and better user experience
• Real-world examples of how developers and enterprises are using the Identity Insights API

Josh Whitehurst, Head of Product at First Orion discusses:

• What’s driving the current “trust crisis” in voice communications, and how we got here
• Why the industry is now moving beyond STIR/SHAKEN and what gaps remain
• What end-to-end authentication means in practice for carriers and enterprises
• How operators like T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, and Vodafone are approaching trusted communications differently today
• How analytics, authentication, and branded identity work together to create trust
• What results companies are seeing when they implement authenticated and branded calling
• How important calling behavior - things like cadence, consent, and timing - is in maintaining trust
• How trust will become a competitive differentiator for operators and enterprises over the next few years

To learn more, visit www.firstorion.com

Martin Rückert, Chief AI Officer at Tallence, discusses:

- Thor Voice AI as a network-native platform that embeds AI directly into telecom voice infrastructure without apps or middleware

- How real-time AI enables live call understanding and responses through speech-to-text, intent recognition, and text-to-speech

- How telcos can use voice AI to automate customer support, enable voice concierge services, and execute real-time tasks during calls

- The importance of carrier-grade reliability, low latency, and operator-controlled deployment for large-scale rollout

- The broader shift toward voice becoming a primary interface for AI-powered, intent-driven telecom services

To learn more, visit www.tallence.com