The social engineering landscape has evolved with the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).

As AI technology becomes more sophisticated, accessible, and easy to use, cybercriminals are leveraging these tools to craft more effective social engineering attacks such as phishing, pretexting, and vishing.

In light of these recent developments, phishing, one of the most widely implemented social engineering attacks, has predictably undergone a massive upgrade. We now see the emergence of what’s called “phishing 2.0”.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, “phishing” is a deceptive cyber attack distributed through email or other types of messages. These messages are created to appear as if they come from a trusted source.

So, what exactly is phishing 2.0, and why should you pay more attention to this new cyber threat?

What is Phishing 2.0 and Why is its Proliferation a Cause for Concern?

Phishing 2.0 is the next evolution of phishing attacks, characterized by the integration of AI and machine learning technologies into traditional social engineering tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).

Unlike conventional phishing, which relies on broad, generic approaches to deceive victims, phishing 2.0 leverages AI to create more personalized, sophisticated, and adaptive attack campaigns.

The infusion of AI technology in phishing is particularly concerning for several reasons:

• Improved quality and believability – This makes it significantly more challenging to identify phishing emails and messages, even if you’re security conscious or trained in basic phishing detection.
• Increased speed and efficiency – Cybercriminals can launch more convincing phishing campaigns to more targets with greater speed and less overhead. This means we may all encounter a greater volume of attacks that are also harder to identify.
• Reduced effectiveness of detection - Phishing detection tools may be effective against traditional phishing, but you can’t rely on them to detect AI-powered phishing attacks.

Perhaps even more alarming is the democratization of these capabilities. Not only are AI tools springing up like mushrooms, but they’ve also become more accessible to the general public, including those with malicious intentions.

How AI Enhances Phishing Attacks

AI enhances phishing attacks in several ways. For example, AI tools can:

• Generate domain names that closely resemble those of legitimate websites.
• Create convincing deepfake images, video, and audio recordings to support the phishing message’s narrative.
• Automatically craft personalized spear-phishing messages by gathering and correlating data about you from your social media accounts and other relevant sources.
• Analyze optimal attack timing based on your behavior patterns, much of which can be tracked online.
• Dynamically adjust messaging based on your role, industry, and online presence.

These capabilities are made possible through the following AI-related technologies:

• Generative models – Enable the creation of synthetic content (e.g., the phishing messages) at scale.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Helps craft highly persuasive, human-like messages that can be tailored to the impersonated target’s writing style, tone, and language preferences.
• Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) – Create realistic deepfake images, videos, and video recordings.
• Machine Learning (ML) – Analyzes vast amounts of data to predict victim behavior, identify vulnerabilities, and optimize attack strategies, sometimes in real time.

Signs of an AI Phishing Attack

In the past, many phishing attacks used to be characterized by inconsistent information, poorly written, or even error-littered messages (e.g., wrong spelling, grammar, or logic). Unfortunately, AI dramatically reduces these deficiencies, making phishing 2.0 attacks much harder to identify.

That being said, you can still employ some proven strategies.

Regardless of whether you’re dealing with phishing 2.0 or traditional phishing, look for the following signs:

• Unusual request – Phishing attacks are usually accompanied by an out-of-the-ordinary request. For example, you might be asked to share your password or sensitive information. You may also be asked to install or download software. Or, if you’re in the position to do so, you may be requested to transfer funds.
• A sense of urgency – Phishing operators will always want to elicit your positive response. And usually, they’ll like it done fast to minimize the chances of getting caught. Thus, they will almost always try to make the request appear urgent.

Once you notice these signs, search for specific technical phishing indicators. While these indicators may be less noticeable when dealing with an AI phishing attack, some attacks may still have them.

• A link to an external webpage. Most banks and other financial institutions have started omitting links from their emails to mitigate the risk of phishing. So, if you see one from an email purportedly coming from your bank, be suspicious.
• An unusual sender email address. Check the sender’s email address. If the domain doesn’t match the alleged sender, there’s a high probability the email is malicious.

How to Prevent AI Phishing Attacks

AI is only going to get better. Consequently, AI-powered phishing attacks will become more deceptive and more challenging to detect. Therefore, you should reinforce your detection strategies with preventive ones.

Here are some you can employ:

• Adopt a security-conscious mindset – One way to prevent any cyber attack is to be conscious of cybersecurity. Keep educating yourself about various cyber threats, not just phishing. By being vigilant and knowing precisely what to do and what not to do, you can significantly reduce the risk of falling for a phishing attack.
• Minimize what you share online – The information you share on social media, forums, and other online platforms can be used to compose highly tailored and convincing narratives in phishing messages. Hence, be more discerning when you share.
• Use multi-factor authentication (MFA) – MFA can prevent certain AI phishing attacks from succeeding. For instance, many phishing attacks are designed to obtain user passwords. Assuming an attacker manages to steal your account password through a phishing email, that attacker would still need your second factor of authentication to access your account.
• Use email with built-in anti-spam and phishing filtering — Some email services (e.g., Gmail) already have built-in anti-spam and phishing filtering functionality. These tools can do most of the heavy lifting for you.

How to Respond to an AI-Powered Phishing Attack

You can only respond appropriately if you’ve detected a phishing attack. So, if you see signs of a potential phishing attack, what do you do next?

• Keep calm – Phishing attacks rely on urgency to provoke a hasty reaction. So, once you realize you’re faced with a phishing email, stay steady and assess the situation.
• Don’t click anything on the email – Phishing emails typically elicit a response, such as clicking a link or downloading an attachment. Hence, once you’ve identified an email as a phishing attack, don’t click anything. That way, the attack won’t be able to proceed.
• Send the suspicious email to your spam folder – There are two key reasons to do this. First, assuming your email service comes with an AI-powered spam filtering feature, doing so helps that feature “learn” and improve its detection capability. Second, it will help your email service identify similar attacks on other users’ inboxes and automatically flag them as spam. If everyone does this, we all benefit.

Current and Future Trends in AI Social Engineering

Before we end this article, let’s examine some current and future trends in AI-powered social engineering and phishing. This information can help you devise appropriate strategies to counter these imminent threats.

Resume Swarming

Researchers behind the Microsoft Digital Defense Report found that attackers are now using AI to scrape keywords and qualifications from online job postings to create perfectly matching resumes.

After gathering the desired keywords and qualifications, the threat actors use AI again to generate numerous resumes containing those elements, which are then submitted.

Some keywords are even embedded and hidden from plain sight using steganography techniques. However, because automated screening tools can still detect these keywords, the bogus applicants can move up the screening process, end up on shortlists, and sometimes get hired.

This strategy lets threat actors infiltrate organizations to steal intellectual property, sensitive information, and trade secrets.

Potential Rise of Non-English-speaking Attackers

In the Cost of a Data Breach Report, researchers declared that “AI makes it easier than ever for even non-English speakers” to generate grammatically, technically, and logically correct phishing messages.

This lowers the barrier of entry into phishing operations for attackers from non-English-speaking countries like China, Russia, and North Korea, which are already known to launch state-sponsored cyber attacks. We could, therefore, see an uptick in phishing attacks from these regions.

These current and future trends align with observations shared by researchers in the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. Cybersecurity researchers tracking cybersecurity forums found a significant increase in mentions of generative AI (GenAI) terms alongside mentions of attack types.

Chart created by OffGrid, data sourced from Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report

Conclusion

Phishing has always been one of the most effective tools in a cybercriminal’s arsenal, and with AI in the mix, it’s become more sophisticated. The shift to phishing 2.0 means attacks are faster, more convincing, and harder to detect, blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s engineered.

AI-driven phishing messages can mimic trusted sources, adapt in real-time, and exploit personal data scraped from the internet, making traditional red flags like poor grammar and suspicious email addresses less reliable.

At the same time, AI isn’t just benefiting attackers. Security tools are improving, multi-factor authentication is becoming more widespread, and awareness about social engineering tactics is growing.

The challenge now isn’t just spotting phishing attempts but developing a mindset that assumes threats are constantly evolving.

At the end of the day, phishing 2.0 is just another example of how cyber threats adapt alongside technology. AI might make these attacks more convincing, but the fundamentals of protecting yourself haven’t changed. Stay skeptical, think before you click, and keep security layers in place.

The more aware you are of how these attacks work, the less likely you are to fall for them.