Visa is warning that the rapid spread of AI across digital commerce is accelerating fraud risks and could drive global cybercrime losses to trillions of dollars by the end of the decade.
In a new report, the payments giant says advancing digital infrastructure, widening access to mobile computing and fast-maturing regulations are pushing commerce into a new AI-powered era, while simultaneously giving fraudsters more sophisticated tools to exploit systems at scale.
Visa says cybercrime is projected to cost the global economy $15.6 trillion by 2029, with malicious bots already accounting for 37% of all internet traffic. The firm says Asia is one of the regions facing the highest scam losses, warning that fraud at this scale can directly undermine economic growth.
The company says a key shift is that fraud is no longer confined to the point of transaction. As low-cost AI tools become widely available, identity itself is emerging as the critical pressure point for fraud prevention.
Visa notes that the industry is entering an era where verifying who is initiating a transaction will matter as much as validating the payment itself, especially as AI-powered scams become more convincing and harder to detect.
“Importantly, the availability of low-cost AI tools means that fraud will not only occur at the point of transaction. A major battleground will be in identity: in an era of AI-powered fraud, how do we authenticate identity to protect consumers, merchants, and issuers?
In 2026, secure and trusted authentication will be a strategic differentiator. More industry-wide collaboration will emerge as governments, businesses, and payment networks come together to combat AI-driven identity fraud.”
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