Three quarters (75%) of Brits are now worried about AI-powered fraud, while four in ten (40%) believe banks and insurers are failing to do enough to protect them, new research finds.The results – part of new Europe-wide research from CRIF, a global leader in credit and insurance information, analytics and solutions – suggest public concern over AI-enabled scams has surged. In CRIF’s 2025 research, only 24% of UK consumers expressed concern over the risks that the rise in AI posed.Two thirds (66%) of UK consumers now believe fraud and cybercrime are becoming a bigger personal threat to them, while 60% think the UK is more vulnerable to cyberattacks than it was a year ago. The numbers mean the UK is among the most concerned countries in Europe when it comes to AI-driven fraud, which includes threats such as cloned voices, more convincing fake customer support messages and highly personalised phishing scams.The findings come amid growing concern from government and cybersecurity agencies over the role AI is playing in modern cybercrime. In April, UK ministers called on AI companies to work with the government to build AI-powered defence capabilities, warning that hostile states and criminal networks are increasingly using AI to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. The National Cyber Security Centre also reported handling more than twice as many nationally significant cyber incidents in 2025 as the previous year.UK business leading Europe’s responseThe impact is also clear on UK businesses, who are responding faster to AI-powered fraud and cybercrime than their European peers.More than three quarters (76%) say cybersecurity investment is now a business priority, the highest figure in Europe. Meanwhile, 42% are already using AI specifically to tackle fraud, again the highest across the continent. Despite this, businesses remain wary of relying too heavily on automation alone. More than eight in ten (83%) say AI-led decisions should always involve human oversight.Banks and insurers lagging behind AI threatsWith the rising concern over fraud and cybercrime, many consumers and businesses also believe financial providers are failing to keep pace with the threat.Four in ten (40%) UK consumers say banks and insurers are not doing enough to combat fraud. Only 31% believe the UK’s financial system is well-equipped to deal with cyber threats, dropping further to 26% when asked about the wider European financial system. Across Europe, more than half (52%) of business leaders say financial providers are not doing enough to protect them from fraud and cybercrime.Sara Costantini, Regional Director for the UK and Ireland at CRIF, said: “Public concern about AI-enabled fraud is rising rapidly and consumers increasingly feel financial providers are struggling to stay ahead of the threat.“While AI can improve our lives, criminals are also utilising it to do us harm, making scams more convincing, heavily targeted and harder to detect. In response, UK businesses are leading the way in investing heavily in cybersecurity and deploying AI-driven fraud prevention tools of their own – a positive, preventative approach, but also indicative of the growing threat facing UK companies.“AI can be used to combat AI - identifying suspicious behaviour and emerging threats in real time, at a scale older fraud systems cannot match. The technology to fight back already exists and the challenge for financial providers is to implement these tools quickly and responsibly to keep consumers and businesses safe from fraud.”As part of efforts to utilise AI in combatting fraud, CRIF’s will be launching its new anti-fraud solution at the beginning of Q3. The solution will enable banks and financial providers to automate anti-fraud checks as part of KYC, KYB and AML activity, spotting patterns and inconsistencies in information and documentation that manual or legacy system checks may miss.The research findings form part of CRIF’s 2026 Banking on Banks report series. The first report, launched today, looks at the biggest financial pressures currently facing European consumers and businesses. The second report, due to be published later this year, will look at the financial services gap between consumers and businesses.NoYesFraud Detection16 Jun, 2026