SEON Report: AI Use Rises, But So Do Fraud Team Headcounts
A 2026 report from fraud and AML firm SEON found near-universal adoption of AI among more than 1,000 global fraud and compliance leaders. Despite the widespread use of automation, the survey also revealed that fraud teams are still growing in headcount and receiving larger budgets.
- The survey of 1,010 senior fraud and compliance leaders found that 98% of organizations already use AI in their workflows, with 95% confident in its effectiveness to detect and prevent fraud. - Despite high AI adoption, 94% of firms plan to hire at least one new full-time employee for their fraud team in 2026, an increase from 88% in 2025. - Budgets are also on the rise, with 83% of leaders expecting their fraud and AML budgets to increase in 2026. - The primary bottleneck hindering performance is not AI efficacy but system fragmentation; 80% of leaders find it challenging to get a unified view of their data, and only 47% run fully integrated fraud and AML workflows. - Account takeovers were cited as the top fraud threat by 26% of respondents, followed by abuse of promotions and discounts (18%) and return fraud (18%). - The report highlights that human expertise remains crucial, with 85% of leaders viewing AI agents as tools to augment their teams' capabilities rather than replace them. - Implementation of new systems remains a challenge, with 38% of companies taking 1-3 months to go live and 24% taking four months or longer, leading to increased costs and prolonged fraud exposure. - Fast-growing companies (over 51% revenue growth) are nearly twice as likely to have a unified view of their fraud and AML data, suggesting that integrated systems are a key differentiator for performance.
