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Fraud doesn鈥檛 knock anymore. It slips in through the side door, disguised as a trusted customer, a helpful bot, or an AI agent acting on someone鈥檚 behalf. The question isn鈥檛 whether merchants are ready鈥攊t鈥檚 whether their fraud strategies are keeping pace with how commerce is actually evolving.
At MRC鈥檚 recent webinar, I sat down with Andy Bignell, Group Fraud Operations Manager at B&Q Ltd (Kingfisher PLC Group), to unpack what鈥檚 really changing. We didn鈥檛 talk about hypothetical futures. We discussed the operational realities that merchants face every day and how AI is reshaping both fraud prevention and fraud detection.
AI is a tool, but also a test
AI helps us detect anomalies in real time, model risk behavior, and reduce the need for manual reviews. It also enables fraudsters to create synthetic identities, deploy adaptive bots, and exploit weak signals in transaction flows.
Andy captured the pace of change perfectly:
“Fast forward 12 months and literally every single speaker was talking about AI: what it鈥檚 already doing, how fast it鈥檚 developing. And it was scary, to be honest. But the big takeaway I took from that was the linkage between departments鈥攆raud, payments, cyber, even marketing鈥攁ll needing to be aligned.鈥�
That alignment is where the real test lies.
When bots buy
Traditionally, bots were synonymous with fraud. Card testing, credential stuffing, click abuse. But that鈥檚 no longer the whole picture.
“Historically, we would have said block all bots. But now that line is blurred,鈥� Andy explained. 鈥淵ou need to let some bots in鈥攑rice comparison, design tools鈥攚hile blocking the malicious ones. That requires much closer alignment with cyber and marketing.鈥�
This shift reframes bots not just as a threat, but as a potential enabler of customer experience and competitive positioning.
The data advantage
At ACI, we recognize that pure AI, without diverse data, can lead to false declines. Intelligent data is what drives intelligent decisions. Andy reinforced this with a merchant鈥檚 lens:
鈥淲e know when a customer鈥檚 password or email has changed, whether they鈥檙e stable or unstable. That almost allows us to positively profile customers and speed up their journey. It鈥檚 not about whitelisting blindly; it鈥檚 about reducing friction while keeping protection in place.鈥�
That balance between trust and vigilance is what separates merchants who thrive from those who stumble.
Governance as a foundation
Governance isn鈥檛 a buzzword. It鈥檚 the scaffolding that holds trust and security together.
鈥淏y having really strong governance, we鈥檙e able to have clear and consistent conversations across the business and with suppliers,鈥� Andy said. 鈥淥nce you start doing more of it, it just becomes easier, and the stats prove it鈥檚 working.鈥�
Consistency builds confidence, both internally and externally.
The road ahead
AI is not just changing how fraud works. It鈥檚 changing how teams work.
鈥淎I gives us a massive opportunity to let the tech do the heavy lifting,鈥� Andy concluded. 鈥淚f I can free up my team鈥檚 time from day-to-day tasks, they can focus on the future: how do we get better, how do we grow, how do we refine? That鈥檚 a smarter way to work.鈥�
That鈥檚 the opportunity in front of us: to use AI not as a crutch, but as a catalyst. To validate intent, not just identity. To build governance that scales with innovation, and to keep trust at the center of every decision.
Outpace, outsmart, and outperform fraud
Fraud costs billions in lost revenue and consumer trust. Don’t let advanced fraud tactics leave you vulnerable, especially during peak sale seasons. Use AI to your advantage by automating false flags while minimizing false positives, freeing up your team to scale key strategies without impacting consumer experiences.
INDUSTRY CASE STUDY
See how ACI automated 3,000 hours using AI-powered fraud management solutions that helped minimize 40% of false positives for a major global retailer.
ACI Fraud Management for Merchants 
A certified fraud and analytics professional with over 20 years of experience in payment acceptance optimization, global fraud prevention, digital identity verification and authentication, statistical data analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence enterprise real-time financial decision technology solutions. Erika leads a global team of fraud professionals across six different countries overseeing customer analysis and implementing state-of-the-art intelligent solutions to reduce operational costs and generate incremental revenue. Leveraging incremental learning, pattern detection and data mining techniques, Erika鈥檚 efforts have delivered best-in-class performance for leading merchants across the globe. Erika鈥檚 contributions have been recognized with the 鈥楩orty under 40鈥� and Women in Payments Educator in 2019. Her passion for her work drives her pursuit of excellence in the industry.
