Artificial intelligence-related fraud is costing Canadian businesses their profits and reputations, with the majority of companies polled by KPMG Canada pointing to cyberattacks for losses to their bottom lines, according to survey results released Monday.
Of the companies that suffered profit losses in 2025, more than 80 per cent said they lost between one and five per cent of their profits to AI-powered fraud attacks. The same number of businesses said they conduct employee fraud awareness training every six-to-12 months.
Nearly 95 per cent of the 251 business leaders polled said they’re concerned about AI attacks, yet only 26 per cent of these companies said they have a comprehensive response plan to defend against the fraud.
KPMG Canada’s survey found that the most common type of attacks were AI-generated phishing emails, followed by deepfake documents and voice–clone executive impersonation calls.
“AI–powered fraud is changing the ground rules,” said Myriam Duguay, KPMG Canada’s national leader of forensic investigation, integrity and dispute services.
“Canadian organizations aren’t just seeing more attempted attacks — they’re more sophisticated, harder to spot and faster to execute, leaving many businesses vulnerable and unprepared to fight back.”
Duguay added that besides the financial losses, fraud attacks can cause “devastating” reputational damage that erodes customer confidence, undermines a company’s brand and results in lost business.
“Now, with (a) rise in AI-powered attacks that can mimic legitimate business interactions with alarming accuracy, the margin for error becomes razor-thin and having strong fraud defences is even more essential,” she said.
More than three-quarters of Canadians said they’re more concerned about fraud than ever before, and are taking extra precautions to protect themselves, according to a poll released Monday by RBC. It also noted 87 per cent of Canadians are struggling to know whether an ad is real or a scam.
In response to increasingly sophisticated attacks, roughly 60 per cent of the companies polled by KPMG said they’re planning on increasing their fraud prevention and detection budgets, investing in precautions like detection technology, employee training and transaction controls.
More than half of the companies polled said they are using AI to defend against AI to identify anomalies, authenticate users, and detect manipulated content.
“Businesses recognize that they are facing a new reality in the fight against fraud, and they’re deploying advanced tools to keep pace with fast–moving threats,” said Marilyn Abate, a partner in KPMG Canada’s risk services practice who specializes in fraud and forensic investigations in the financial services industry.
“While that’s a good step forward, technology alone isn’t enough. It’s not just about buying technology; it’s about equipping people to use it well, closing skills gaps, and running programs that evolve just as quickly as the threats.”
Abate recommended training employees to ask colleagues personal questions that can’t be answered through an online search, or using a safeword to guard against impersonations.
Ross Pambrun, an AI expert and futurist, echoed the importance of going back to basic human logic to defend against AI-powered fraud. He also said prevention begins with teaching employees about key cyber awareness lingo, like phishing.
“I often make a comment that if you don’t know these terms, you shouldn’t be allowed on the internet,” Pambrun said.
“Agentic tools are making it more available for anybody to come up with deep fake strategies. The only reason that they’re attacking you is because they found a route, so we have to educate at the levels where people are being attacked.”
