Concerns and Encouraging Signs Regarding AI in Fraud Detection

Despite concerns about bad actors using artificial intelligence to perpetrate fraud, there are encouraging signs that AI is helping organizations combat it.

According to an FIS survey of business and tech leaders, 78% of respondents reported that AI has improved their company’s fraud detection and risk management strategies. Nearly half indicated that, consequently, their organization plans to increase investment in AI over the next two years.

A greater number of companies are entrusting AI with complex tasks. Approximately 56% of survey participants stated that their organizations are either scaling or fully implementing AI to support financial processes.

Firdaus Bhathena, Chief Technology Officer at FIS, noted this as a sign that organizations are “moving from acknowledging AI’s value to embedding it into the fabric of daily business operations.”

The Agentic Boom

Significant strides in incorporating AI have been made by the largest financial services companies, evidenced by the recent boom in agentic commerce.

• Mastercard and Visa have launched new platforms that turn AI agents into autonomous shopping bots capable of searching for items and making payments with minimal customer interaction.
• PayPal has embedded payments directly into Perplexity’s chat, enabling users to purchase products or services after conversing with an AI agent about them.

Removing the Barriers

Apart from these innovations, fraud remains a persistent concern. Criminals possess a greater understanding of the technology and have already deployed artificial intelligence across various use cases, unimpeded by regulations that traditionally hindered businesses.

The FIS report highlighted several barriers to broader AI adoption. The primary challenge cited among business leaders was the high cost of implementing and maintaining AI-powered systems. Other frequently mentioned obstacles included a lack of in-house expertise and difficulties integrating the technology with existing systems. Until organizations can overcome these challenges, bad actors will maintain an advantage.