The next scale frontier: How Ory and Cockroach Labs are rebuilding trust for agentic AI

Spencer Kimball, CEO of Cockroach Labs, and Jeff Kukowski, CEO of Ory Corp, discuss the challenges and opportunities of rebuilding digital trust in an era dominated by autonomous AI agents. Unlike the traditional web scale era, where infrastructure was designed around predictable human interactions, today's AI-driven environment requires systems to handle massive and unpredictable machine-generated interactions. This shift necessitates a redefinition of trust and identity management, demanding infrastructure that can support a vast number of autonomous agents acting simultaneously and securely. Cockroach Labs and Ory Corp propose a model where Ory manages identity and access with precision, while CockroachDB provides a robust, globally-distributed data layer, ensuring resilience and compliance even under extreme conditions. As AI agents become the primary drivers of scale, businesses must pivot to architectures that can maintain security, resilience, and compliance, making identity and data locality core design dimensions. This approach not only addresses current demands but also positions companies to define the future of enterprise technology, emphasizing that resilience and trust are essential for scaling in the age of intelligent systems.