Jeff and Jim are back with the May 2026 mailbag, answering listener questions from Amsterdam, Mumbai, Austin, and Berlin. Topics include navigating IAM vendor acquisitions, defending against AI deepfakes in remote onboarding, governing contractor and third-party identities, fixing the leaver process in IGA, and tackling a decade of IAM technical debt. The episode closes with unpopular industry opinions: why RFPs are procurement theater, why rip and replace should be normalized, and why one-throat-to-choke vendor thinking usually backfires.

IDPro new member discount: https://idpro.org/idac/

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/

Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/

Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com

CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro and SNL nostalgia

03:25 AI model roundup: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and usage limits

10:16 Identiverse 2026 and IDPro member discount

14:53 Q1: Navigating vendor acquisitions (Isabelle, Amsterdam)

24:00 Q2: AI deepfakes in identity verification (Rajan, Mumbai)

32:32 Q3: Contractor and third-party identity governance (Caleb, Austin)

43:00 Q4: The leaver process and IGA scope gaps (Anonymous)

51:10 Q5: Tackling IAM technical debt (Tomas, Berlin)

57:00 Normalizing rip and replace

01:01:00 RFPs, one throat to choke, and other hot takes

01:08:00 Wrap-up

KEYWORDS

IAM, identity governance, IGA, vendor consolidation, acquisitions, deepfakes, identity verification, contractor management, non-employee identity, technical debt, rip and replace, RFP, joiner mover leaver, leaver process, Identiverse 2026, IDPro, IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald