In early 2024, a finance employee at a multinational firm received a video call from what appeared to be their company’s CFO. The familiar face asked for help executing a confidential transaction. The employee followed through. Over $25 million was wired across multiple accounts before anyone realized the CFO was never actually involved. The entire interaction was staged using artificial intelligence and a convincing deepfake.
This isn't science fiction. These attacks are happening now, with increasing frequency. While many organizations are just beginning to explore the benefits of AI in finance, cybercriminals are already using it to exploit gaps in outdated systems and manual workflows.
For accounts payable (AP) departments, this moment demands a shift from passive fraud monitoring to proactive risk mitigation.
Phase 1: Understand the Risk
The Escalating Threat of AI-Powered Fraud
AI has changed the game for cybercriminals. Phishing scams have evolved from sketchy grammar and broken links into realistic messages generated by large language models (LLMs). Deepfake technology can replicate a voice or video with stunning accuracy. Sophisticated impersonation tactics now mimic real vendors, executives, or internal communication threads. What were once rare, sophisticated attacks are now alarmingly common.
Deepfake Impersonation
AI-generated audio and video are now used to impersonate executives, usually requesting urgent wire transfers or banking changes. Industry research shows 95 percent of fraud victims now fear deepfakes, with 91% concerned that AI gives criminals new tools for deception. These incidents are growing in frequency and often surpass traditional security measures.
Business Email Compromise (BEC) and Vendor Fraud
Attackers don’t need to hack your system. With LLMs and public-facing information, they can spoof vendor email addresses or domains, slip into ongoing threads, and send doctored invoices that appear completely legitimate.
BEC remains a top fraud threat. According to the AFP’s 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey, 63% of organizations experienced attempted or actual BEC in 2024, and 45% reported vendor impersonation specifically. BEC is the most common avenue for payment fraud today.
Invoice Tampering
Machine learning tools make it easy to alter invoice documents. A fraudster can swap out bank account numbers, invoice totals, or vendor names with barely noticeable changes. These subtle changes often slip past manual review processes, especially in high-volume environments. AFP estimates vendor fraud can go undetected for up to 18 months on average.
AI-Enhanced Phishing
Forget awkward phrasing and weird formatting. Today’s phishing emails are polished, personalized, and believable. With generative AI, attackers can mimic your team’s writing style and target specific employees with alarming precision. According to McKinsey, phishing sites surged 138% since ChatGPT’s launch. This is clear proof that intelligent automation is making scams harder to spot.
Why AP Is Especially Vulnerable
AP teams are a prime target because they control the movement of money. But beyond that, the daily pressures of invoice volume, tight deadlines, and approval bottlenecks make it easier for fraud to go unnoticed.
Many AP departments still rely on manual processes like email approvals, shared inboxes, spreadsheets, and fragmented systems that make it hard to track vendor data or spot inconsistencies. In that environment, even minor oversights can lead to major financial losses.
And recovery? That’s rare. According to the 2025 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey, only 22% of companies hit by payment fraud were able to recover most of their losses. The rest were left absorbing the loss, along with reputational damage and strained supplier relationships.
Why Traditional Controls Fall Short
Dual approvals and payment thresholds still matter, but they weren’t built to handle today’s AI-powered threats. In fact, many teams lack the visibility to even recognize when an attack is happening.
Disconnected systems make it easy to miss red flags. An updated vendor email here, a slightly different bank account there. Consider this: a fraudster swaps a legitimate address like supplier@company.com for supp1ier@company.com (using the number 1 instead of an “l”). Without centralized verification and alerts, this kind of subtle change could move through multiple approval layers completely unnoticed.
The hard truth is that without centralized visibility and intelligent validation, fraud often hides in plain sight.
What Happens If You Wait
There’s a tendency to view fraud prevention as something that can be revisited later. But fraud doesn’t wait. And when it happens, the financial and reputational impact can take months, if not years, to recover from.
The longer you delay, the more exposed your organization becomes. In an environment where AI accelerates the speed and scale of fraud, postponing action is no longer a neutral choice. It is a liability.
AP teams don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. But they do need to ask hard questions:
- Can someone update vendor banking details without secondary verification from finance and the vendor directly?
- Would your system flag a 300% increase in invoice amounts from a trusted vendor?
- If a "vendor" emails requesting an urgent payment to a new account, do you have a mandatory callback protocol?
- Can you trace every approval step for a payment made six months ago within 10 minutes?
- Would you catch if someone changed supplier@company.com to supp1ier@company.com (with a "1")?
If the answer to any of these is “I’m not sure,” start by conducting a fraud vulnerability assessment of your current AP processes, then prioritize the gaps that pose the highest risk.
The bottom line: traditional AP controls weren’t designed for AI-powered threats. But the same technology enabling these attacks also powers the solution.
Phase 2: Build the Solution
What an Intelligent Defense Looks Like
Fortunately, finance teams have the opportunity to turn the tables. Modern AP platforms combine machine learning, intelligent automation, and layered access controls to strengthen security at every step.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Verified Vendor Workflows
New vendors or banking changes shouldn’t be accepted at face value. Built-in verification steps such as tax ID validation, banking confirmation, and callback protocols help prevent bad data from entering your system. These layers add consistency and trust to a process that’s often too reliant on manual judgment.Machine Learning–Driven Anomaly Detection
AI learns your normal payment patterns and flags anomalies in real time. If someone tries to pay a vendor earlier than usual, for more money, or from an unfamiliar IP address, the system alerts you immediately. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
Even if an attacker gains access to user credentials, MFA blocks unauthorized actions. High-risk tasks like updating vendor info or issuing payments should always require an extra layer of verification. Role-Based Permissions
Not everyone needs access to every function. Smart permissions ensure no single user can complete a high-value transaction alone. This preserves internal controls without slowing the team down.Comprehensive Activity Logs
End-to-end audit trails track every action across the AP lifecycle. This includes submission, approval, and any changes to vendor details or payment routing. These logs are essential for investigating fraud, resolving disputes, and proving compliance.Encrypted, Role-Limited Infrastructure
Modern platforms encrypt sensitive data like vendor payment info and limit access based on roles. This reduces the risk of data exposure in case of a breach or phishing attempt.
Fraud Prevention as a Finance Function
Cybersecurity has evolved from a purely IT concern into a critical component of finance strategy. As fraud evolves, so must the finance team’s role in identifying, preventing, and responding to threats.
That’s especially true in AP, where daily decisions directly impact cash flow, vendor relationships, and financial credibility. Being reactive isn’t enough. Strategic finance leaders now treat fraud prevention as a core pillar of digital transformation.
This is where frameworks like Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) come in. EPM helps finance leaders align tools and processes with long-term goals and prioritize secure, scalable automation that delivers real business value.
Risk management becomes more than just a defense. It’s a business advantage that strengthens control, boosts trust in your financial data, and enables confident decision-making.
Building a Smarter, Safer AP Operation
Modern AP automation should do more than streamline approvals. It should serve as a proactive defense system.
Today’s platforms include intelligent features like anomaly detection, verified onboarding steps, customizable approval thresholds, activity logs, and real-time alerts. Together, these tools help AP teams work faster, without letting fraud slip through the cracks.
Speed matters, but resilience is what keeps your AP operation secure as cyber threats evolve just as quickly as your business.
Curious how intelligent AP tools actually deliver on that promise?
Debunking the Biggest Myths About AI-Powered Accounts Payable Solutions clears up the most common misconceptions and shows how the right technology can make smarter, safer finance a reality.
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