Signs of AI usage increased year-over-year,with novel social engineering techniques rising from 32% to 38% and large‑text,long‑form messages increasing from 27% to 33%. These patterns reflect a shifttoward more personalized, credible‑looking lures designed to evade traditionalfilters.
How AI is Changing the Phishing Landscape
How AI is Changing the Phishing Landscape: A Guide for Modern Security Teams AI
Discover how AI is reshaping phishing attacks, increasing scale and sophistication, and how security teams can use AI-driven detection and response to identify, disrupt, and reduce evolving phishing threats.

AI-assisted phishing is accelerating
LLMs raise the bar
LLMs can do the legwork of gathering data about intended targets, so they can craft more personalized and convincing emails that mimic the style of trusted senders and domains, and know things only those entities should know.
Pay-as-you-go phishing
Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) kits lower barriers to entry by equipping novice attackers with everything they need – ready-to-use emails that impersonate known brands and fake hosted sites used to capture credentials.
Discover how AI is reshaping phishing attacks, increasing scale and sophistication, and how security teams can use AI-driven detection and response to identify, disrupt, and reduce evolving phishing threats.
The rise of AI-driven phishing attacks
82% of security professionals worldwide are concerned about the use of generative AI to craft convincing phishing emails. This white paper explores the ways in which AI is changing the phishing landscape, why the security gap keeps widening, and how defensive AI can be used to identify advanced email attacks that evade traditional defenses. As phishing campaigns become more personalized and scalable, organizations increasingly rely on AI phishing detection to recognize suspicious behavior and stop attacks before they reach users’ inboxes.
Modern cyber attackers are increasingly using generative AI and large language models to create highly convincing social engineering campaigns. These AI-generated phishing emails can mimic trusted senders, replicate internal communication styles, and remove the spelling mistakes that historically exposed phishing attempts. This shift has accelerated the rise of sophisticated AI phishing attacks, enabling threat actors to launch targeted campaigns faster and at a much larger scale.
Traditional email security tools often rely on static rules, signatures, and known indicators of compromise. However, these approaches struggle to detect new or evolving threats. AI phishing detection technologies take a different approach by analyzing behavioral patterns across users, devices, and communication channels. By understanding what normal email activity looks like within an organization, AI systems can quickly identify anomalies that indicate potential phishing attempts, business email compromise, or account takeover.
This white paper explores how modern phishing campaigns are evolving and how organizations can use defensive AI to strengthen email security. Download the report to learn how security teams can detect AI-generated phishing emails, respond to emerging AI phishing attacks, and build stronger defenses against advanced social engineering threats.
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Email Security Platforms, Max Taggett, Nikul Patel, Franz Hinner, Deepak Mishra, 16 December 2024Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights are a registered trademark, of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end users based on their own experiences with the vendors listed on the platform, should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
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