We Just Won "Overall Authentication Solution of the Year" — Here's Why It Matters for AI Builders

Arcade.dev just took home "Overall Authentication Solution of the Year" in the 8th Annual AI Breakthrough Awards. And before you roll your eyes at another tech award announcement, let me explain why this actually matters for anyone building AI agents that need to do real work.

The Problem We All Keep Hitting

You know that moment when your perfectly crafted AI agent suggests "I'll schedule that meeting for you" — and then... doesn't? Because it can't?

Yeah, that's the wall everyone's been hitting. Your AI can write beautiful SQL queries but can't actually query your database. It can draft the perfect email but can't send it. It can plan your entire day but can't touch your calendar.

The disconnect: AI agents today are like brilliant consultants with no hands. They can tell you exactly what to do, but they can't actually do it.

What We Actually Built (No Fluff)

Here's what Arcade.dev does in plain terms:

• Secure OAuth flows that let AI agents authenticate as actual users (not just bot tokens)
• Pre-built connectors to Gmail, Slack, Notion, Salesforce, and 50+ other tools
• 7-minute setup from zero to authenticated agent (we timed it)
• Tool evaluation framework so you can test agent actions before they go live

Think of it as the authentication layer that should have existed from day one of the AI revolution.

Why "Authentication Solution" Actually Means Something

When the AI Breakthrough judges evaluated 5,000+ nominations from 20 countries, they weren't looking for the shiniest demo. They were looking for infrastructure that makes AI useful in production.

Here's what they saw:

# Without Arcade: AI suggests actions
response = llm.chat("Schedule a meeting with the team")
# Output: "I'd be happy to help you schedule that meeting..."
# Reality: Nothing happens

# With Arcade: AI takes actions

manager = ToolManager(api_key=arcade_api_key)

google_tools = manager.get_tools(toolkits=["Google"])
google_agent = create_react_agent(
    model="openai:gpt-4o",
    tools=google_tools,
    prompt="You are a helpful assistant that can assist with"
           " managing a Google account, contacts, and inbox.",
    name="google_agent"
)

# Agent can now actually create the meeting
response = google_agent.invoke([{
    "role": "user", 
    "content": "Schedule a meeting with the team"
}])
# Reality: Meeting appears on everyone's calendar

The Technical Bits That Matter

OAuth 2.0 Done Right: We handle the entire auth flow, token refresh, and permission scoping. Your agent gets exactly the access it needs — nothing more, nothing less.

Tool Evaluation Framework: Before your agent goes wild in production, you can define test cases and use our critics system to verify behavior:

@tool_eval()
def hello_eval_suite() -> EvalSuite:
    """Create an evaluation suite for the Slack tool."""
    suite = EvalSuite(
        name="Slack evaluation",
        system_message="You are a helpful assistant with access to Slack.",
        catalog=catalog,
        rubric=rubric,
    )
 
    # Example evaluation case
    suite.add_case(
        name="Send DM on Slack",
        user_message="Send a DM to Alex to say we won the prize!",
        expected_tool_calls=[
            ExpectedToolCall(
                func=send_dm_to_user,
                args={
                    "name": "Alex",
                    "message": "We won!!"
                },
            )
        ],
        critics=[
            SimilarityCritic(critic_field="name", weight=0.5),
            SimilarityCritic(critic_field="message", weight=0.5),
        ],
    )
 
    return suite

Then run:

arcade evals .

Deployment Flexibility: Run in our cloud, your VPC, or fully on-premises. Because we know you have that one customer who insists on air-gapped deployments.

What This Means for AI Development

Less than 30% of AI projects make it to production. Want to guess why?

It's not because the models aren't smart enough. It's because they can't authenticate, can't access real systems, and can't take actual actions.

This award isn't just recognition — it's validation that the industry is finally focusing on the unglamorous but critical infrastructure that makes AI agents actually useful.

Try It Yourself

Don't take our word (or AI Breakthrough's) for it. Grab an API key and see what happens when your agents can finally touch the real world:

pip install arcade-ai
arcade login
arcade chat

Ask it to check your email, create a calendar event, or post to Slack. Watch it actually do it.

Then maybe you'll understand why we're so excited about building the connective tissue that makes AI agents real.

Want to see what agents can accomplish with more than just chat? Check out Chat.Arcade.Dev→

P.S. — To the 5,000+ companies who entered these awards: respect. Building in AI right now is like changing the engine while the plane is flying. We're all in this together.