Shufti Named a Dual Leader in Liminal 2026 Age Verification, Estimation Index -

A global market Intelligence firm, Liminal, has recognized Shufti as a dual leader in both its 2026 Age Verification Index and 2026 Age Estimation Index, distinguishing the identity verification platform across two distinct use cases. In the Age Verification Index, Shufti is among the 17-Leader chart on product execution and recorded the highest strategy-tied score at 92%. The Age Estimation Index, also named Shufti among 17 Leaders positioned within the leadership quadrant on both Product Execution and Strategy.

Liminal evaluated 189 verification and 80 estimation vendors in 2026

For the 2026 Age Verification Index, Liminal scored 189 vendors against a 42% product execution cutoff and a 61% strategy cutoff. Only 17 vendors cleared both to qualify as Leaders. Among those 17, Shufti scored 64% on product execution and tied for the highest strategy score at 92%. Liminal also placed Shufti in its Exceptional market-presence tier, the report’s top category.

For the 2026 Age Estimation Index, Liminal scored 80 vendors against a 33% product execution cutoff and a 46% strategy cutoff. 17 vendors cleared both. Shufti not only made it to the leadership quadrant by clearing both thresholds with a significant margin, but it also distinguished its position with an “Exceptional” rating for Market Presence.

Indexes reflect a market shift toward risk-based, multi-method age assurance

The dual recognition lands as practitioner buyers shift away from one-size-fits-all age checks toward layered, risk-based assurance. Liminal’s 2026 buyer demand surveys found that 41% of age verification solutions still rely on full Know Your Customer (KYC) for every check. Separately, 62% of practitioners using facial age estimation have triggered internal reviews of their age assurance methods over transparency, integration, and demographic accuracy concerns. A further 62% of the market still relies on static age estimation models that do not adapt to new fraud tactics; only 4% use a continuous-learning approach.

The combined picture is a market evaluating vendors on whether they can run multiple verification methods through a single decisioning layer, rather than whether they can perform any one method well.

Practitioners now run four vendors but want a single platform

Both Liminal Indexes surface a consistent finding. Buyers report running an average of four vendors today, and 87% of age estimation buyers say they would prefer a single platform. The cost of that sprawl is rising as global regulation fragments. Ofcom’s enforcement of the UK Online Safety Act, the US Supreme Court’s June 2025 ruling in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, upholding state-level age verification laws, and Australia’s December 2025 under-16 social media ban. Each framework defines acceptable age assurance differently. A vendor that satisfies one regulator may not meet the bar in another.

Shufti combines estimation and verification under one decisioning layer

The recognition reflects Shufti’s approach of layering age estimation, document verification, authoritative database lookups, and configurable liveness checks through a single risk-based decisioning engine. Liminal’s analyst notes state that estimation handles low-risk gates with sub-second decisions, whereas full check, including liveness and deepfake detection, completes within a few seconds, whereas step-up paths to document or database checks are only invoked when confidence is low or when the regulator demands a stronger signal.

Shufti’s on-device age estimation capability is designed to run inference on a device and in browser without internet connectivity and without transmitting facial data, generating reusable age tokens for repeated checks across sessions. The provider also covers KYC, Know Your Business (KYB), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) screening, document verification, and fraud prevention. Shufti’s technology stack is built and owned end-to-end, supporting more than 2,000 businesses across 240+ countries and territories. Compliance teams reviewing their age assurance and identity verification stack can explore Shufti’s age verification platform or request a demo to evaluate the platform on production data.