🔐AI is changing cybersecurity faster than most companies realize
- Malika Ait El Mouden
- May 12
- 3 min read
Bangkok, Thailand
Board Member
La French Tech Bangkok
Cybersecurity was mainly about protecting infrastructure: networks, servers, endpoints, databases. Companies focused on firewalls, antivirus software, access management and incident response. The threat landscape was serious, but relatively predictable. Artificial Intelligence is changing that model entirely! As a result, cybersecurity is becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in tech globally including in Thailand and Southeast Asia in general.
Estimated global losses from cybercrime range between $500 billion and $1 trillion per year. Scam-related losses alone exceed $1 trillion annually, reflecting the industrialization of online fraud.
Asia as the epicenter
Asia, and especially Southeast Asia, has become a global hotspot for cyber-enabled fraud and AI-driven scams. Estimated losses in East and Southeast Asia reach $18–37 billion in 2023 as a conservative baseline based on documented scams. Broader scam-related economic impact across Asia is estimated at around $688 billion annually when including underreported fraud ecosystems.
Why Asia is particularly exposed
The region concentrates large-scale organized scam networks operating across borders, rapid adoption of AI-generated phishing and deepfake voice and video attacks, high mobile-first internet penetration increasing exposure to social engineering, and significant activity in cross-border crypto fraud and digital payment exploitation.
Several companies and startups are now specializing in AI-driven cybersecurity solutions, including members of the French Tech Bangkok ecosystem, helping companies strengthen resilience, detect threats earlier and secure increasingly complex digital environments.
What makes the AI era fundamentally different is the speed and scale at which threats can now evolve.
Cyberattacks are no longer limited by human execution.
AI-powered bots can automate phishing campaigns, scan vulnerabilities in real time, generate malicious code and even imitate voices or identities with alarming accuracy. A single attacker can now deploy operations that previously required an entire team. At the same time, the rise of generative AI is blurring the line between authentic and synthetic content, creating new risks not only for infrastructure, but also for trust, reputation and decision-making itself.
This transformation is particularly relevant for Southeast Asia, where digital adoption is accelerating across sectors such as finance, retail, hospitality and healthcare. As companies embrace cloud technologies, AI tools and connected ecosystems, the cyber attack surface expands dramatically. The challenge is no longer simply technical. Cybersecurity is becoming a strategic business issue involving governance, employee awareness, data protection and operational resilience. In many cases, human behavior remains the weakest point in the chain, especially as AI-generated scams become increasingly difficult to detect.
The good news is that Artificial Intelligence is also becoming one of the strongest defensive tools available. AI-driven cybersecurity platforms can detect anomalies faster, automate incident response and identify suspicious behavior patterns before major breaches occur. But technology alone will not solve the problem. Organizations must combine advanced security architectures with continuous education, stronger cyber awareness and clear AI governance policies. In the years ahead, the companies that will thrive will not necessarily be those adopting AI the fastest, but those capable of building trust and resilience at the same speed as innovation.
Example of a real case in 2024 (Hong-Kong)
AI-powered deepfake fraud: the $25M CFO impersonation scam
Source: Gizmodo
A finance employee was tricked into transferring $25M after joining a video call with what appeared to be the company’s CFO and several other colleagues.
In reality, every participant was AI-generated deepfake video and voice.
What happened
> Attackers used publicly available corporate videos and voice data
> AI recreated highly realistic real-time deepfake identities
> Social engineering and AI impersonation bypassed human suspicion
> The employee followed legitimate-looking financial instructions
Why it matters
> No system breach was needed
> No malware was detected
> The attack targeted human trust and not infrastructure
In the AI era, the weakest point is no longer the firewall: it’s the ability to distinguish real from synthetic reality.
If you would like to discover some of the leading startups and companies specializing in AI-driven cybersecurity solutions in Thailand and across Southeast Asia, feel free to contact us. We would be happy to share a curated list of key players helping organizations strengthen cyber resilience in the AI era.