And next Medius offer that helps businesses safeguard against fraud has released data showing that half of Brit's worry that the increase of artificial intelligence will lead to an increase of fraud. The research comes as the financial conduct authority. Recently remarked about the use of AI in finance being likely to trigger a rise in fraud where the UK prime minister publicly announcing at the other day that he wants the country to become a global AI hub while on the line, Sarah Firth spoke to invoice fraud export Paul Ellis from medias to find out how the great how how great the threat is and what Londoners can do to protect themselves. The threat of of fraud utilizing AI tools is is very, very significant. I mean, Medius recently did some research on on it and found that actually over half of Brits are are really concerned about AI and fraud, and and they should be. Because the AI is very good at at narrow use cases. And and fraud is one of those where criminals can use AI tools to to really start to be very, very sophisticated. As to how they can can start to to commit fraud. So recently, for example, I think it was referenced in the article. There was a there was what's called a deep fake video by the, a pundit called Martin Lewis that that everybody knows. And if you go and look at that deepfake video, you'll see his face, his mannerisms, his words, promoting what is actually a a a fraudulent trade as a fraudulent scam scandalous trading platform. And and actually, you know, it's it's incredibly realistic, and that will only get better. So I think The tools are there for, you know, from for criminals to exploit from a consumer point of view, but also from from a business point of view. The criminals will be using the AI tools to target invoice processes, payment processes so that they can divert monies from businesses straight into to criminal bank account. So I think AI is a real threat from fraud. And because AI is moving exponentially quickly, it will only get better and better and better, and the speed that it's improving is is unbelievable. So so consumers and businesses need to take it very, very seriously. I wanted to talk to you about that. You yourself are an invoice fraud expert. You've already mentioned there some of the examples we had. Have you come across the use of AI in a fraudulent manner in your line of work so far or are there indicators that that's perhaps going to be what comes next? No. No. That already there's there's there's many examples of a fraudulent activity within business. So, you know, so if you take, for example, the the flow of an invoice. So an invoice will come into a business, will be captured, will be approved, and ultimately will be paid. Criminals now are getting very, very clever at, in effect, impersonating suppliers, slightly amending details, on invoices so that actually invoices are being received and approved by businesses that actually are not bona fide supplies at all. And and this can be actually existential to a business visitors because some of the payments that are very significant and and these are cash payments straight from the business. So So if those businesses don't invest in the technology, the criminals will have better and better tools at their disposal, they'll be much more sophisticated. And already, there are many, many examples in the business world of where they've been successful in diverting payments away from businesses to to criminal gangs and network. And so the AI is just gonna make what's already happening in terms of criminality even easier. Yeah. Even easier. And and and and it will only get better because the the criminal gang were looking for loopholes in processes, and AI will help them become ever more sophisticated, a, finding those loopholes, but b, exploiting with those loopholes and and getting payments away from from the company. So unless the businesses really start to invest, the the processes that the businesses have relied on in the past simply won't be good enough. To to combat what what is coming, which which have some very sophisticated attacks. I mean, obviously, here in London, you've got city of London, we're right at the heart of the global economy in many ways, for businesses out there and for consumers out there as well and in just individuals, an obvious question is given the risks and the threat, what can people and businesses be doing to protect themselves against this? Yes. So I so I think that there's a few things. I think one of those is, obviously, criminals have now got access to better technology. I think I think from a from a business point of view, businesses need to invest in technologies that can combat what what criminals are are now doing. And, you know, there there are many solutions on the market. Medius is one of those that combat, you know, invoice to pay that whole process from an invoice being received to to payment being made. And and unless you you track that whole process, it it becomes more difficult to track fraud because fraud ultimately is at the payment point. You know, when the payment is made, that's when the fraud takes place. But for that to take place, There'll be a lot of activity further up the chain, and you have to look at all of those different points in terms of from when the invoice is received, approved, and paid and look at everything in the chain. So I think, you know, there there are things that need to be done there, and technology really assists with that by proactively monitoring fraud at every step.