October 2026
PYMNTS Data Dives

AI Fights Back: Inside the Battle Against Payment Fraud

A familiar supplier’s name on an email doesn’t guarantee a payment request is real. AI-written impersonation emails lead the AI fraud tactics that firms encounter, yet 57% of companies use no AI tools to detect fraud in supplier payments. Firms using several AI tools report stronger results in stopping fraud before money leaves their accounts, offering a compelling reason to examine these defenses.

Header image for the October 2026 PYMNTS Intelligence Fraud Prevention First Data Dive. PYMNTS Intelligence explores AI fraud detection, adoption barriers and how firms protect business payments from scams.

Artificial intelligence is changing how businesses commit fraud and how finance teams fight back. PYMNTS Intelligence finds that AI-written emails impersonating vendors and suppliers are the most common AI-enabled fraud tactic companies encounter. Yet adoption of AI fraud defenses remains sharply divided. More than half of firms use no AI detection tools, while 42% have deployed at least three. Companies using multiple AI tools report stopping more fraud attempts before money is lost. With many firms planning to introduce AI defenses within the next year, the technology is gaining ground in the fight to protect business payments.

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    Scam Emails Dominate

    Half of firms responding to this question say AI-written emails impersonating vendors and suppliers are the most common AI-enabled fraud tactic they encounter, and 88% encounter these scam emails at least a few times a year.

    Adoption Divides Firms

    More than half of firms use no AI tools to detect fraud in payments to vendors and suppliers. Meanwhile, 42% use at least three AI detection tools. Just 1% use only one or two.

    More Fraud Stopped

    Nearly six in 10 firms using at least three AI fraud detection tools report stopping 90% or more of fraud attempts before any money is lost. That’s nearly twice the share of firms without AI detection tools.

    False Alerts Worry

    Among firms without AI fraud detection, nearly nine in 10 cite concerns about wrongly flagging legitimate payments as a barrier to adoption. Additionally, 74% hesitate to automate fraud reviews without human approval.

    Adoption Plans Accelerate

    Among firms without AI fraud detection, 24% say they’re implementing it now. Another 34% expect to adopt it within the next 12 months. Just 2% say they have no plans to adopt the technology.

    Methodology

    The findings come from “Prevention First: Building a Smarter Defense Against Payments Fraud,” a PYMNTS Intelligence survey of 150 U.S. treasury and finance executives at companies generating at least $100 million in annual revenue. Respondents oversee or are familiar with fraud prevention for payments sent to vendors and suppliers. The survey includes 65 firms using AI or machine learning for fraud detection and 85 firms not using these tools. Findings concern outgoing business payments rather than payments received. Individual chart sample sizes may vary.

    About

    PYMNTS Intelligence is a leading global data and analytics platform that uses proprietary data and methods to provide actionable insights on what’s now and what’s next in payments, commerce and the digital economy. Its team of data scientists includes leading economists, econometricians, survey experts, financial analysts and marketing scientists with deep experience in the application of data to the issues that define the future of the digital transformation of the global economy. This multilingual team has conducted original data collection and analysis in more than three dozen global markets for some of the world’s leading publicly traded and privately held firms.

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