AI-powered scams hurting employers, workers: reports

While artificial intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool that can make life easier for HR professionals, workers and different organisations, it can also pose a threat to everyone, according to two new studies.

AI-driven scams are hitting Canadian employers’ bottom lines while leaving workers anxious and uncertain about whether they can spot the next attack, report KPMG Canada and RBC separately.

Specifically, nearly three-quarters (72%) of Canadian businesses lost between 1% and 5% of their annual profits to AI-powered fraud attacks in the past 12 months, states KPMG’s 2026 Business Fraud Survey. Among organisations that experienced fraud, 81% say the incident was AI-enabled, and 72% of those were targeted more than once.

“AI–powered fraud is changing the ground rules,” says Myriam Duguay, Partner and National Leader of Forensic Investigation, Integrity and Dispute Services at KPMG Canada. “Canadian organizations aren't just seeing more attempted attacks – they're more sophisticated, harder to spot and faster to execute, leaving many businesses vulnerable and unprepared to fight back.”

KPMG found the most common AI-enabled schemes reported by companies were AI-generated phishing emails or chats (60%), deepfake documents (39%) and voice-clone executive impersonation calls (24%).

Employment scams experienced a dramatic increase in 2023, as criminals leveraged artificial intelligence to exploit unsuspecting job seekers, according to experts. In 2025, advisory firm Gartner warned earlier that one in four job candidates globally will be fake by 2028.

Fraud incident response

Nearly all (94%) business leaders are concerned about the risk of AI-powered attacks targeting their organisation over the next year, according to KPMG’s survey.

However, only 26% say they have a formal, comprehensive and tested fraud incident response plan that explicitly addresses AI-enabled attacks such as deepfakes and voice clones.

Duguay says the impact extends beyond immediate financial losses.

“Beyond the immediate financial hit, the reputational fallout from a fraud attack can be devastating,” she says. “A single scam can shatter customer confidence, result in lost business, and leave lasting damage to a company's brand. Now, with [the] rise in AI-powered attacks that can mimic legitimate business interactions with alarming accuracy, the margin for error becomes razor-thin and having strong fraud defences is even more essential.”

Canadians feel bombarded, vulnerable

Parallel consumer research from RBC - based on a survey of 1,540 Canadians in January -  suggests that workers and customers are already bracing for a future where scams are constant and, in many cases, indistinguishable from legitimate messages.

According to RBC’s 2026 Fraud Prevention Month Poll, 81% of Canadians feel “there is a new scam to watch out for every single week”, and 83% say it is safest to assume any unexpected text, email or call is a scam until proven legitimate. Eighty-seven per cent say it is getting harder to know whether an advertisement is real or a scam, and 75% feel it is getting tougher to tell if a business website is legitimate when shopping online.

Artificial intelligence is a key concern. Thirty-nine per cent of Canadians feel confident they can recognise an AI-powered scam today, while 68% believe AI will eventually make scams impossible to detect. RBC reports that 41% of respondents have opened an email or attachment or clicked on a link before realising it was a scam, and 40% spoke with someone on the phone before realising it was a fraudster.

“Canadians are staying alert, questioning unexpected messages and doing what they can to reduce their risk, but scams are evolving faster than ever,” said Amit Sadhu, Senior Vice President, Credit and Fraud Management at RBC. “As scams become more frequent and harder to detect, people are left second guessing every message, call or click.”

RBC says 76% of Canadians report they are doing more now to protect themselves against fraud and scams than in previous years, but 54% admit they do not always know what they should be doing.

How are employers fighting AI scams?

Canadian employers are beginning to respond with new tools and higher spending, according to KPMG’s survey of 251 Canadian companies conducted in February. More than half (52%) of companies surveyed by KPMG say they are “fighting AI with AI” by using the technology to identify anomalies, authenticate users and detect manipulated content.

Six in 10 respondents plan to increase their fraud prevention and detection budgets by up to 7% this year, with priority spending on detection technology, employee training and transaction controls. KPMG also reports that 81% of companies conduct employee fraud awareness training every six to 12 months.

“Businesses recognize that they are facing a new reality in the fight against fraud, and they're deploying advanced tools to keep pace with fast–moving threats,” says Marilyn Abate, a partner in KPMG Canada's Risk Services practice who specialises in fraud and forensic investigations in financial services. “While that's a good step forward, technology alone isn't enough. It's not just about buying technology; it's about equipping people to use it well, closing skills gaps, and running programs that evolve just as quickly as the threats.”

Abate says “organizations are no longer standing still – they're starting to invest, adapt, and treat AI–enabled fraud as a strategic business risk,” but cautioned that “many organizations still have significant work ahead to fully modernize and strengthen their defences against rapidly evolving AI–enabled fraud.”

KPMG recommends that organisations treat fraud prevention as a strategic capability encompassing governance, talent and accountability; move away from incremental enhancements to pre-AI operating models and point-in-time checks; and adopt continuous, risk-based controls to prevent, detect and disrupt fraud earlier in the lifecycle.

Also, RBC shares tips to Canadians, which employers can share with their workers. The bank is urging Canadians to: 

• pause when emotions are triggered

• verify unexpected requests through trusted channels

• watch for personalised scams that exploit publicly available information, 

• and use strong passwords, multi-factor authentication and transaction alerts

Seven in 10 U.S. managers say employees have made mistakes using AI tools in the past year, with some errors costing employers more than US$50,000, according to a previous survey by Resume.org.