Key takeaway: More than half of finance teams use no AI fraud detection tools, while a sizable minority use three or more. Merchants, processors, and treasury fraud prevention teams evaluating new tools should expect this split to widen. The survey suggests fraud tactics will keep driving the gap wider.
PYMNTS Intelligence and Bottomline conducted a new survey, “Prevention First: Building a Smarter Defense Against Payments Fraud.” The survey finds a stark split in AI fraud detection adoption among US treasury and finance executives. Fifty-seven percent of firms use no AI fraud detection tools at all, while 42% use three or more.
The survey polled 150 treasury and finance executives at US companies with at least $100 million in annual revenue. These executives are responsible for, or knowledgeable about, protecting outbound payments to vendors and suppliers. PYMNTS fielded the survey in July 2026 and classified 65 of the firms as AI users and 85 as non-users.
Adoption varies sharply by sector. Technology firms lead the pack: 57% of them run three or more AI fraud detection tools. Services firms follow at 44%, and goods firms trail at 34%. Among firms without AI fraud detection tools, 54% in the goods sector say manual processes handle fraud well enough. Only 33% of technology firms say the same.
Looking ahead, 81% of firms plan to prioritize automated vendor onboarding verification over the next 12 months. Real-time bank account verification before payment ranks second at 75%. AI-driven transaction monitoring ranks third at 73%. This order suggests firms want to confirm a vendor or account is legitimate before a payment moves. They are prioritizing this over catching fraud after the fact.
Check fraud remains a persistent problem too. Thirty-five percent of firms report encountering it. Forty-eight percent say checks account for at least 10% of their outbound fraud losses.
Why it matters: The data points to a widening fraud-prevention gap. Larger technology and services companies are pulling ahead of goods-sector firms still relying on manual review. This split could leave slower-moving industries more exposed as fraud tactics evolve. Vendor onboarding verification is becoming the next priority investment.