AI-Enabled Cybercrime Becomes Professionalized and Causes Real-World Harm
According to a Trend Micro study, cybercriminals have transformed AI-enabled crime from experimentation into a professionalized business model, renting services like deepfake fraud and voice cloning that require no special expertise. A Swiss business owner reportedly lost several million francs to a voice cloning fraud, and security researchers warn that widespread, low-cost AI tools are enabling identity theft and corporate infiltration while criminals adopt technology faster than defenses can be deployed.
What happened
According to a Trend Micro analysis titled 'Criminal AI in 2025: The Year the Underground Went Pro', AI-enabled cybercriminals have professionalized their operations into an established business model based on analysis of underground services, malware samples, and active attack campaigns.
Cybercriminals increasingly misuse existing AI platforms rather than develop their own, deploying services such as Jailbreaking-as-a-Service and deepfake fraud schemes that can be rented, reused and scaled without specialized knowledge.
A business owner in the canton of Schwyz recently fell victim to a fraud scheme in which cybercriminals impersonated a business partner by telephone using AI voice cloning software.
Reported impact
The business owner from the canton of Schwyz lost several million Swiss francs in the voice cloning fraud incident.
Trend Micro warns that the greatest risk lies in the normalization of AI-enabled cybercrimality through low-cost and readily available techniques, which is expected to continue with steady, continuous development in 2026 rather than sudden escalation.
Index analysis
Criminals use AI to refine existing methods and reduce costs, making fraud schemes such as malware and deepfakes more efficient.
First malware variants that use AI to create or modify malicious code point toward development of more adaptive malware, while widely available deepfake technologies facilitate new fraud waves including identity theft and corporate infiltration.
Defenders currently maintain an advantage through AI-enabled detection, threat intelligence and analysis tools, but criminals are adopting technologies faster than protective mechanisms can be deployed, potentially eroding this advantage.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.