Who's Really Behind the Signature? Socure and Docusign Redefine Trust in Digital Agreements

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The digital agreement has become the backbone of modern business. From loan applications to employment contracts, organizations rely on electronic signatures to move faster and serve customers better. But speed without certainty creates risk. In an era marked by the <a href="https://www.socure.com/blog/how-socure-is-fighting-deepfakes-synthetic-ids-and-fraud-with-ai">proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes and synthetic identities</a>, and a continued surge in identity takeovers, the crucial question extends beyond mere signature verification to discerning the true individual behind it. It is imperative to gain a hyper-accurate view of the person behind the signature: Are they real? Are they who they claim to be?
That’s the challenge Socure and Docusign set out to solve with our new strategic partnership, <a href="https://www.socure.com/news-and-press/identity-certainty-to-every-signature">announced today</a>. And while the market has seen identity verification integrated into agreement workflows before, what makes this partnership different is what happens before anyone is asked to take a selfie.
<h2>The Agreement Paradox: Speed vs. Security</h2>
Digital agreements were supposed to make business frictionless. And in many ways, they have. But as organizations have accelerated their workflows, fraudsters have kept pace. Digital document forgeries have overtaken physical ones, signaling a major shift in how bad actors exploit modern systems. The rise of generative AI has only accelerated this trend, making it easier than ever to create convincing fake documents and identities at scale.
The traditional response has been to add more verification steps: upload a document, take a selfie, wait for manual review. These approaches create friction at the worst possible moment right when a customer or employee is ready to commit. High-risk users get slowed down. Legitimate users get frustrated. And fraud still slips through.
Instead of relying solely on outdated, expensive, and inaccurate methods like knowledge-based authentication (KBA) — which create significant friction for users — Docusign customers can now leverage Socure’s full product suite to confidently approve legitimate users while stepping up authentication for high-risk engagements in real time. Traditional KBA not only frustrates legitimate users with obscure questions but also proves costly and ineffective for organizations.
The real problem isn’t verification itself. It’s when and how verification happens.
<h2>Identity-First, Not Identity-After</h2>
Socure’s approach to the Docusign partnership starts with a fundamentally different question: What if we could assess identity risk passively, before asking users to do anything at all?
That’s where <a href="https://www.socure.com/products/graph-intelligence">Socure’s identity graph</a> comes in.
Unlike solutions that rely primarily on <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/biometric-verification">biometric verification</a> or document uploads, Socure’s platform leverages a comprehensive identity graph built from thousands of data sources—email, phone, address, device intelligence, behavioral signals, and more. This graph doesn’t just verify that someone has an ID document. It verifies that the <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/digital-identity">digital identity</a> engaging with the Docusign agreement is real, consistent, and trustworthy.
When a user enters the Docusign Identify flow with Socure embedded, our AI-powered models are already at work:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.socure.com/products/sigma-identity-fraud">Sigma Identity Fraud</a> detects third-party fraud by analyzing the coherence and history of the digital identity</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.socure.com/products/sigma-synthetic-fraud">Sigma Synthetic Fraud</a> uncovers manipulated or fabricated identities that traditional checks miss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.socure.com/products/email-risk">Email</a>, <a href="https://www.socure.com/products/phone-risk">Phone</a>, and <a href="https://www.socure.com/products/address-risk">Address RiskScores</a> instantly assess the risk associated with contact information</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.socure.com/products/digital-intelligence">Digital Intelligence</a> passively evaluates device and behavioral signals to detect anomalies</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><a href="https://www.socure.com/products/global-watchlist">Global Watchlist Standard</a> screens against sanctions</li>
</ul>
All of this happens in milliseconds, with zero added friction for the user.
<h2>Risk-Based Authentication: The Right Check at the Right Time</h2>
Here’s where the partnership gets even more powerful: Docusign’s new Risk-Based Verification feature, dynamically tailors the verification process based on the risk profile Socure generates.
Low-risk users move through the agreement process quickly, with minimal interruption. Higher-risk scenarios trigger additional verification steps, but only when the risk warrants it.
This isn’t about adding friction. It’s about adding intelligent friction. The kind that stops fraud without punishing legitimate users.
And because Socure’s models are continuously refined and rigorously tested for bias under our model governance program, organizations can trust that decisions are both accurate and fair.
<h2>What This Means for Businesses</h2>
For organizations using Docusign, the Socure integration delivers three critical outcomes:
<ol>
<li>Fraud prevention without friction: Passive identity assessment means most users never experience additional verification steps, yet fraud is caught early. It is caught before agreements are signed and before losses occur.</li>
<li> Compliance confidence: Socure Verify+ and Global Watchlist Standard ensure that <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/know-your-customer-kyc">KYC</a>, <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/anti-money-laundering">AML</a>, and <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/sanction-screening">sanctions screening</a> requirements are met seamlessly within the Docusign workflow, with full audit trails for regulatory review.</li>
<li> Operational efficiency: By catching fraud and compliance risks upfront, organizations reduce costly manual reviews, rescinded agreements, and post-signature investigations.</li>
</ol>
<h2>A Partnership Built on Complementary Strengths</h2>
Docusign brings the world’s leading Intelligent Agreement Management platform. Socure brings the most accurate <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/identity-verification">identity verification</a> and <a href="https://www.socure.com/glossary/fraud-prevention">fraud detection</a> in the industry. Together, we’re enabling organizations to move fast and stay secure without forcing them to choose between the two.
This partnership isn’t about replacing existing verification methods. It’s about making them smarter. <a href="https://www.socure.com/products/document-verification">Document verification and biometric checks</a> still have their place, especially for high-risk scenarios. But by starting with <a href="https://www.socure.com/products/graph-intelligence">Socure’s identity graph</a>, organizations can reserve those higher-friction methods for the cases that truly need them, while letting the majority of legitimate users move through unimpeded.
<h3>The Future of Trust</h3>
Digital agreements are only as trustworthy as the identities behind them. As fraud grows more sophisticated and <a href="https://www.socure.com/blog/regulatory-compliance">regulatory scrutiny intensifies,</a> organizations need verification that&#8217;s both comprehensive and invisible. They need identity verification that works in the background so legitimate users can move forward without hesitation.
The Socure and Docusign partnership makes this possible. By embedding AI-powered identity verification directly into the agreement workflow, we&#8217;re enabling organizations to catch fraud early, meet compliance requirements seamlessly, and preserve the user experience that drives conversion.
This is the standard modern businesses should expect: security that doesn&#8217;t compromise speed, and trust that doesn&#8217;t require friction.

Who's Really Behind the Signature? Socure and Docusign Redefine Trust in Digital Agreements

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