Enhancing Personal Identity Proofing Services Through AI for a Sustainable Digital Society in Korea

The integrity of digital identity is foundational to a sustainable digital society yet is increasingly challenged by sophisticated AI-enabled risks such as deepfakes and synthetic identities. This is a conceptual paper that develops an AI-integrated, adaptive audit framework for Personal Identity Proofing Services (PIPSs). Focusing on the Republic of Korea’s regime for designating and periodically auditing Accredited Identity Proofing Institutions (AIPIs), this paper proposes an AI-integrated, adaptive audit framework for PIPSs that replaces static, checklist-based oversight with intelligence-driven governance. The framework comprises five capabilities: presentation-attack/synthetic identity detection; anomalous-behavior analytics beyond rule-based fraud detection systems; explainability and bias governance; predictive resilience and incident readiness; and standards conformance for interoperability. To clarify the sustainability relevance, the paper aligns governance outcomes with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—SDG 9 and SDG 16. The paper outlines policy actions and audit-ready indicators to support future pilots and comparative assessment. By shifting from rules to intelligence, the framework strengthens technical resilience and user-centered digital trust, advancing resilient infrastructure and trustworthy institutions. To validate the framework, this study outlines a pilot with AIPIs using SDG-aligned metrics and audit-ready indicators as evaluation endpoints.