How can an employer check an AI agent certificate?

Check it at the issuer, never from the copy you were sent. Take the certificate number or scan its QR code, open the issuer's verification page, and confirm the name, credential, issue date, expiry and status match. A lapsed or revoked certificate should show as such on that same page. A PDF proves only that someone once had a file.

Why a copy is not enough

Certificates for people who oversee AI agents are worth something because they gate approval rights. That makes them worth faking or stretching. A PDF can be edited. A genuine PDF can outlive the certificate it shows: someone certified two years ago may still have a perfectly real document while their certificate lapsed a year ago.

Checking at source answers both problems. The issuer's record is the authority, and it reflects the current status, not the status on the day the file was produced. The guide to AI literacy and certification explains where certificates fit among wider training.

What are the steps?

1. Get the number or QR code, not just the document. Ask the person for their certificate number, or scan the code printed on it.
2. Use the issuer's own verification page. Type the address yourself or scan the code; do not follow a link in an email from the candidate.
3. Match the identity. The name on the record must match the person in front of you. Where a public register exists, it lists certified people by name, credential and expiry.
4. Read the credential. Is it the level you need? A foundations-level badge shows awareness; a professional certificate for operators or builders shows tested competence.
5. Check status and expiry. Current, lapsed or revoked. Note the expiry date.
6. Record the check. Who checked, when, what the record showed. Keep it with the person's file or your AI agent certificate register.

For contractors, the same steps apply; the contractor certification check template gives a ready form.

What does each status mean for approval rights?

A lapsed certificate does not mean the person forgot everything. It means the evidence of current competence has gone, and approvals they make would not be backed by it. The note on what a lapsed certificate means for a reviewer covers the practical consequences.

Don't confuse a person's certificate with an agent's

The phrase "AI agent certificate" is used for two different things. One is a person's credential showing they can oversee or build agents. The other is the agent's own certification for a capability, earned by replaying it against real cases and scored on gates such as grounding, refusal and scope. Agent certificates lapse after 90 days and a run that clears no depth drops the agent to depth 1 the same day.

An employer checking a candidate is checking the first kind. A business checking whether its agent may act at a given depth is checking the second. Both should be checked at source, and both can lapse.

An example at hiring

A lender hires a credit reviewer who says they hold an operator certificate. HR asks for the number, opens the issuer's verification page and finds the record: correct name, operator credential, expired three months ago. The candidate had passed and practised, but had left their last job before renewing.

The lender makes the offer, but sets up the candidate's approval rights only after they renew, which for this credential is an update module and a short quiz. The renewal guide, how to renew an AI agent certificate, covers what is involved. The lender records the original check, the renewal and the new expiry.

Where the Academy fits

Pryme Intelligence Academy certificates are issued through VerifyDoc.ai and can be checked at source by anyone, by number or QR code. A lapsed or revoked certificate shows as such on the same page, and a public register lists certified people by name, credential and expiry. The free Foundations badge is stamped with the product version, so an employer can see which version it was earned on.