The path to the future…of airport security

CLEAR is a super-convenient, user-friendly service that allows you to skip airport security.

Clearly, the TSA has decided this is a safe, reliable way to assess the risk people pose as security threats. And it doesn't take a user flow professional to see that it's a more efficient way to move people from arrival to checking in at your gate.

So why can't we simply scale this up to all passengers taking a flight today?

You might argue that Clear is a premium service (it is), but it's probably a lot cheaper to implement and maintain than employing a team of quality-trained TSA agents. Moreover it's a system that can improve over time (unlike our current model) as advances are made in digital identity, biometrics and IoT devices. It might just take a simple software update, and maybe a few hardware upgrades, as the years progress.

I have little doubt that the TSA plans to implement something like this in the not super distant future. But it seems to me that we’d all be a lot better off—more productive, more efficient, and yes, safer—if we were actively taking steps to implement these solutions now, not later.

It’s a fitting metaphor for the (once in a lifetime) opportunity all of us have in the modern economy.

The technology is here. The future is now. All that’s essential—what we need more of—is action.