How is AI changing Social Engineering attacks?
updated June2026
AI has changed social engineering from a manual, research-heavy activity into a scalable, automated and highly convincing threat. Attackers can use generative AI to write flawless phishing emails, clone voices, create deepfake video calls, imitate executives, scrape public information and tailor messages to specific employees. The result is a new generation of attacks that are harder to spot, faster to launch and more likely to exploit trust. For organisations, the challenge is no longer just teaching people to look for spelling mistakes or suspicious links. It is building a security culture where every unusual request is verified.