Much has been written about the threats and perils artificial intelligence (AI) poses to financial services and how it can be used by cybercriminals to infiltrate customer accounts. In an industry already plagued by constant fraud concerns, where it’s predicted that the global cost of fraud will surpass $40 billion by 2027, the explosive popularity of AI, and the additional hazards it presents, have not necessarily been met with widespread enthusiasm across the sector.
Because using AI does not require deep technical acumen as an operator, it can actually enhance the abilities of common, run-of-the-mill criminals motivated to leverage it for offensive purposes. Launching an attack on a financial institution can require little more than telling the AI what to do. The technology can take on many of the activities criminals once had to learn themselves, such as writing scripts for phishing scams. And it does it all with much greater speed.