Can AI generate believable phishing emails personalized to a target ?

A capability we wish AI didn't have. The defensive flip side — AI phishing detectors — also got dramatically better in 2024.

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AI systems can generate text that resembles human-written content, including emails, and have been shown to be capable of creating personalized messages based on available data about a target. The quality and believability of such generated emails depend on the complexity of the AI model, the amount and quality of training data, and the specific goals of the generation task. While AI-generated phishing emails may not always be perfect, they can be highly convincing, especially when combined with social engineering tactics. The ability of AI to generate personalized and believable phishing emails poses significant security risks, as it can make phishing attacks more effective and harder to detect.

— Enriched May 9, 2026 · Source: IEEE — https://ieeexplore.ieee.org