Artificial intelligence is at the center of Experian’s 11th annual Identity and Fraud Report, which finds more consumers — and criminals — are using AI to navigate the digital economy.

The majority (54%) of surveyed consumers say they have used or would consider using AI to shop and complete transactions online; however, only 17% say the same for financial services decisions.

Nearly 20% of consumers experienced a loss due to fraud in 2025 and another 15% thwarted an attempted fraud. The most frequently encountered types were phishing scams (26%), false advertising (19%), package delivery scams (16%) and credit card theft (16%).

Sixty percent of businesses say fraud losses were somewhat or significantly higher than in 2024. Eighty percent of businesses report using AI to fight back against fraudsters, who are themselves increasingly armed with AI-powered tools. Executives list AI-related fraud (53%), AI-assisted first-party fraud (51%) and document forgery (45%) among their top concerns.

“AI is transforming digital interactions in ways that are creating both exciting opportunities and new risks,” writes Kathleen Peters, Experian’s chief information officer, in a release. “As we move toward a human-not-present era where consumers increasingly rely on AI to help make decisions on their behalf, the organizations that will succeed will be the ones that make trust visible. Establishing identity and trust, whether for a person or an AI agent, is essential to every digital interaction.”

Read the full report at Experian