AI Risks and Implications for Finance Professionals

Author: Asante Nxumalo

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the finance profession. From accelerating month-end close to improving forecasting, the efficiencies are undeniable. But so are the emerging threats. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently warned of a looming “AI-powered fraud crisis”. Fraud risk driven by AI is no longer speculative. It is a present and growing reality. And finance professionals are at the frontline. Across Africa, where financial inclusion has leapt forward largely thanks to innovations such as mobile money and fintech platforms, the same tools that empower people are also creating new avenues for AI-driven fraud. 

Traditionally, fraud is broadly categorised into two areas: misappropriation of assets (such as theft or embezzlement), and fraudulent financial reporting (intentional manipulation of financial statements). These categories help frame where finance teams typically carry responsibility. However, in an AI-driven environment, the boundaries are becoming blurred. New forms of fraud, from synthetic identities to deepfake authorisation, often sit outside of traditional accounting controls yet have direct implications for finance professionals. 

AI tools, particularly generative models, are automating report generation, cash flow forecasting, client insights, and even advisory tasks. Finance teams can now ask natural-language questions about their data and receive actionable insights in real time. According to recent surveys, these technologies are delivering cost and time savings across the back and middle office.

But there’s a dark undercurrent to this progress — one that finance professionals urgently need to address. 

Earlier this year, Smile ID, an African digital identity verification, fraud detection, anti-money laundering entity, released their 2025 Digital Identity Fraud in Africa report which included some unsettling findings. The report revealed that biometric spoofing (using fake biometric data to impersonate someone else), identity farming (creation, collection, or manipulation of fake or stolen identities), and AI-based forgeries are rapidly increasing, especially in Southern Africa where fraud rates jumped from 9% to 21% in the past year largely due to the exploitation of outdated identity documents. This may have grave consequences. Imagine a small business owner applying for credit online, only to have their identity stolen through a deepfake-generated ID card. 

The CEO of Smile ID, Mark Straub, warns that “FinTech platforms with weak KYC (Know Your Customer) or FICA protocols remain the most vulnerable” and emphasised the need for continuous innovation in order to stay ahead of fraudsters: “The future of fraud prevention lies in adaptability. While AI provides fraudsters with powerful new tools, it also helps security practitioners harness global intelligence to counter zero-day attacks and automate manual processes”. Smile ID is a leading African digital identity verification, fraud detection, and anti-money laundering, and KYC Compliance company for businesses scaling across the continent. 

Another anecdote comes from Arup, a global consultancy, where a finance employee was tricked into transferring $25 million after joining a video call with what appeared to be their Chief Financial Officer, but it was in fact a deepfake. Emails and SMS messages generated by AI now mimic executive language so well that they can pass undetected by humans and systems. Fraudsters are also registering fake vendors with synthetic documents and false bank accounts, compromising procurement and payment functions. 

If a global consultancy can be tricked into losing $25 million, what chance does a mid or small sized company with fewer controls have? Fraudsters do not respect borders, and Africa’s rapid digital adoption makes it both an opportunity and a target. 

Trustpair is a global fraud prevention platform headquartered in France. It specialises in protecting companies against payment fraud by continuously verifying vendor data, detecting anomalies, and securing financial workflows. While its core market is Europe and the US, Trustpair’s insights are relevant for an African context where payment fraud linked to vendor management and procurement is a growing challenge. According to Trustpair’s 2025 US Fraud Study:

• 90% of finance professionals have been targeted by cyber fraud in the past year

• Of those targeted, 47% reported incurring losses due to cyber fraud averaging $10 million over the same period

• The fraudulent use of Generative AI deepfakes has risen 118% year-on-year

What does this mean for finance professionals? 

• Finance teams face the threat of payment fraud from fake vendor details 

• Finance teams are also vulnerable to AI-crafted invoice scams

• Executives may be impersonated in video or voice to authorise fraudulent transactions

• Compliance and audit teams may struggle to distinguish manipulated data trails from legitimate ones. 

A growing body of research warns of AI-generated phishing, deepfake-enabled fraud, and attacks on AI systems themselves (arXiv, 2025). There is concern about bias, opacity and data misuse. The finance profession is being tested on multiple fronts. 

In South Africa, a study on electronic banking fraud identifies technological advancements as a significant key driver behind the rise in fraud across digital channels (Chindara, 2025). Similarly, in a 2024 study that was conducted regarding the regulating artificial intelligence to advance financial inclusion in South Africa, a key finding was that the South African financial crime regulatory environment recorded a 36% increase in digital fraud cases in 2022. In addition to this, the study found that AI technologies are being rolled out to shift fraud detection from reactive to proactive, making use of anomaly detection to identity fraud before it happens (Makore, PELJ 2025)

This also has a significant impact on a company’s brand loyalty. MTN Group’s 2024 annual report highlighted how cyber fraud directly erodes consumer trust in mobile money, a sector where Africa is leading the world with over 70% of global mobile money transactions. This shows that AI fraud is not just a financial reporting issue but an issue that affects the day-to-day lives of many. 

How should finance leaders respond to the risks presented by Artificial Intelligence?

Here are four steps that finance leaders can take right away:

1. Retire outdated authentication methods: Weak authentication methods (such as unsecured email-based approvals) should be replaced with Multi-factor authentication that combines device ID, behaviour, biometrics, and passwords. Trusted tools like Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator can be used to secure access to important information in places such as cloud-based accounting systems and banking portals. Finance leaders can also explore USSD-based authentication layers that are more inclusive yet still secure. 

2. Monitor and update internal controls over procure-to-pay processes: For example, companies can validate vendor details on an ongoing or cyclical basis before disbursing payments and rather than only validating creditors at onboarding.  

3. Use smart systems you can understand and test: AI should not be a black box, especially in finance. As more organisations use AI models to detect anomalies, there must be transparency around how these models work. Businesses should consider deploying trusted fraud detection tools (e.g. SAS Fraud Management or DataProphet) to flag irregular transactions. The outputs of these systems should be explainable with audit trails and a “reason for flag” for users. Finance, IT and Internal Audit teams should collaborate to review these systems regularly. Organisations should also consider building capacity internally for AI expertise. 

4. Educate and adapt: Cyber fraud is a strategic risk that affects governance, ethics, sustainability and stakeholder trust. Businesses should consider:

   1. Upskilling finance teams to understand common digital fraud tactics such as phishing, spoofed documents, etc. 

   2. Running scenario-based fraud workshops that simulate real attacks and clarify response protocols

   3. Integrating cyber and fraud risks into integrated reporting and Enterprise Risk Management frameworks 

   4. Align with King IV principles and ensure that those charged with governance  are anticipating and responding to digital disruption accordingly

AI is changing the finance profession, and not always in ways that we expect. The same tools used for improving productivity are now enabling fraudsters to bypass our most trusted systems. As finance professionals, we sit at the intersection of capital, control, and trust. The stakes have never been higher. The future of the profession doesn’t just belong to those who adopt AI – it belongs to those who adopt it responsibly. 

Reference list

1. Is Generative AI Fueling a new wave of fraud in Africa? (2025) - https://ibsintelligence.com/ibsi-news/is-generative-ai-fueling-a-new-wave-of-fraud-in-africa/?

2. Regulating Artificial Intelligence to Advance Financial Inclusion in South Africa (2024) - https://www.saflii.org/za/journals/PER/2024/75.pdf? 

3. Examining the key drivers of electronic banking fraud prevalence in the South African banking sector - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2025.2508366? 

4. Fintech.Global (2025) – Sam Altman fears looming AI fraud crisis in bankinghttps://fintech.global/2025/07/25/sam-altman-fears-looming-ai-fraud-crisis-in-banking

5. Trustpair Blog (2025) – AI-powered fraud crisis: Sam Altman’s warninghttps://trustpair.com/blog/ai-fraud-crisis-sam-altman

6. arXiv.org (2025) – Secure & Responsible AI Adoption in Financehttps://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21574

7. Accenture Survey (2025) – Cybersecurity & AI Readiness in Banking [as referenced in Fintech.Global]

8. Case Study – Arup (via Trustpair, 2025) – Deepfake CFO used to steal $25 million https://trustpair.com/blog/25-million-deepfake-scam-the-ultimate-con/ 

9. MTN 2024 Annual Report https://www.mtn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/MTN-Group-FY-24-Integrated-Report_spreads.pdf 

10. GSMA State of Mobile Money Report https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/connectivity-for-good/mobile-for-development/gsma_resources/state-of-the-industry-report-on-mobile-money-2024/