The HID 2026 State of Security and Identity Report surveyed over 1,500 professionals and found organizations are racing to tear down the wall between physical and digital security and the consequences are massive.
For decades, corporate security lived in two separate worlds: a keycard got you into the building, and a password got you onto the network. Those worlds are colliding fast. According to the HID 2026 State of Security and Identity Report, organizations are no longer treating physical and digital access as separate problems. They are merging them into a single entity, and the shift is reshaping how businesses invest, operate, and view risk.
Identity is the new perimeter
The biggest headline from the report is that identity management has become the number-one strategic priority in security, ranked in the top three by 73% of respondents, the highest of any category. Organizations are no longer asking whether to invest in unified identity platforms; they are asking how to invest. They are asking how quickly they can get there. With 60% planning to increase spending in this area, the market has spoken. The challenge driving this urgency? A staggering 52% of organizations say managing fragmented systems across physical and digital environments is their single biggest pain point.
Mobile credentials go from trendy to table stakes
Mobile credentials using a smartphone instead of a physical card to access buildings and systems have crossed a critical threshold. Three-quarters of organizations have deployed or are actively planning to deploy them. Notably, the motivation has shifted: security improvements now lead adoption at 50%, overtaking simple convenience. Still, 84% of organizations maintain a hybrid mix of mobile and physical credentials, acknowledging that a single format cannot serve every employee, contractor, or use case.
“Mobile credentials have transitioned from emerging technology to expected baseline capability.”
Biometrics are expanding but so are the ethical questions
Fingerprint and facial recognition are moving beyond multi-factor authentication and into the core of everyday access control. Nearly 1 in 3 organizations has already deployed biometrics, and another 23% plan to follow. But the report flags a sharp rise in concern: 67% of end users now express moderate or high worry about the ethical and privacy implications of biometric data — up dramatically from 31% just a year earlier. This is no longer just a compliance issue. It is becoming a deciding factor in whether organizations deploy the technology at all.
Knowing where your workers are in real time
Real-time location solutions (RTLS) are emerging as a serious enterprise priority, with 42% of organizations flagging it as strategically important and 40% already using the technology. Worker safety and regulatory compliance are the primary drivers, cited by 69% of adopters. The technology is finding homes in hospitals tracking equipment, factories monitoring hazardous zones, and warehouses optimizing logistics. Despite the momentum, 47% have yet to deploy—and 38% of industry partners report that their customers are not sufficiently familiar with what RTLS can do.
Budget and complexity are slowing everyone down
Despite the clear direction of travel, the report makes clear that execution is hard. Budget constraints top the list of barriers to physical-digital convergence at 51%. Integration complexity haunts every technology category — 52% struggle with identity management systems, 37% with merging physical and digital systems, and even in mature technologies like RFID, 33% of users wrestle with integration challenges. The organizations that will win, the report suggests, are those that pursue phased implementation and build strong partnerships with vendors who can fill expertise gaps.
The bottom line
The HID report paints a clear picture: the security industry is at an inflection point. Physical and digital identity are converging, whether organizations are ready or not. Those that move deliberately — consolidating platforms, investing in unified identity management, and taking privacy seriously from day one — stand to gain meaningful advantages in both security and operational efficiency. Those who wait risk not just breaches, but irrelevance.
