Survey shows 81% of finance leaders faced AI‑linked fraud attempts in past year
Early Warning Services’ Certos unit surveyed 230 senior financial leaders between August 7 and 21, finding that 81% reported an attempted fraud involving AI‑generated content in the last year. Seventy‑nine percent said they were concerned that such fraud could damage trust in their organization, while 43% pointed to payment diversion as their top worry.
Eighty‑four percent of respondents said AI‑enabled fraud is much or somewhat harder to detect than traditional schemes. Only half felt confident they could spot such fraud before money left the company, despite 87% believing they were somewhat prepared. Ninety‑three percent said the risk is changing how they view their financial‑institution partners, and 51% want those partners to provide better detection of suspicious activity.
“Biggest concern is a convincing fake request slipping through and sending company money to the wrong place,” anonymous CFO of a Fortune 500 company said.
“AI can make fraud easier to create, scale and disguise,” Certos spokesperson said.
Certos’ report comes at a time when businesses across many industries continue to loudly and enthusiastically embrace new AI tools in the name of productivity, even as purveyors of the technology themselves continue to issue dire warnings about the threats posed by their own products.
What we know
According to a new survey of 230 senior financial leaders conducted by Early Warning Services’ fraud prevention unit Certos, as many as 81% of respondents said their company had experienced an attempted fraud that involved, or appeared to involve, “AI-generated or AI-enhanced content or techniques” within the last year.
A similar share (79%) said they were very concerned that AI-enabled fraud could negatively affect trust in their organization.
The most common response to that question, cited by 43% of respondents, was payment diversion, followed by detection gaps or control lags, named by 38% of respondents.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said that AI-enabled fraud is much, or somewhat more difficult, to detect than traditional fraud.
Certos conducted the online survey Aug. 7-21 and received 79 responses from leaders at Fortune 500 companies, 127 from venture-backed companies and 24 from charitable organizations.