If your business isn’t already thinking about deepfake threats, now is the time to start – these risks are real, growing and can affect employees, operations and your brand

In recent years, rapid economic, social and technological changes have brought both opportunity and uncertainty. While many embrace the advances AI offers, its sped-up expansion is moving faster than regulatory or ethical controls can keep up with, leaving it open for insidious and deliberate misuse.

Its darker applications are already evidenced in the rise of deepfake scams, non-consensual sexualised content and AI-enabled impersonations online. From invasive attacks that violate personal privacy to manipulations that make individuals feel threatened, exposed, or exploited, this is a clear and growing threat that demands serious attention from organisations.

Deepfakes – synthetic media created using artificial intelligence to convincingly mimic real people’s voices, faces, or behaviours – are no longer science fiction. While the technology has legitimate creative and entertainment applications, it also poses immediate risks to the workplace, the brand, and the broader digital ecosystem businesses operate within. This is not a problem for tomorrow; it is happening right now.

What Can Be Harmful to Employees?

Deepfakes can target employees in ways that are deeply personal and damaging:

• Impersonation Scams: AI-generated audio or video that appears to come from a manager or executive, instructing staff to take unsafe actions or transfer funds.
• Harassment and Abuse: Synthetic media designed to defame, intimidate, or humiliate an individual, including sexualised content that disproportionately affects women in visible roles.
• Credential Theft: Deepfakes used in social engineering to trick employees into revealing login credentials, personal data, or confidential company information.

These risks can undermine trust, create unsafe working environments and exploit human vulnerabilities. Employee education and awareness are critical first steps, ensuring staff can recognise deepfake tactics and report suspicious content.

What Can Be Harmful to the Business?

Organisations face a range of risks beyond those affecting individual employees. AI-generated impersonations can be used to authorise payments, alter bank details, or manipulate contracts, leading to significant financial loss. Fake directives appearing to come from leadership may cause confusion or disrupt normal workflows, while an inability to distinguish genuine communications from fabricated ones can erode internal trust, lowering morale and productivity. Deepfakes also pose serious reputational risks: synthesised videos of executives making controversial statements can quickly go viral and damage public perception, and manipulated media can spread false information about products, services, or safety, undermining stakeholder confidence and trust in the brand.

The Most At-Risk Groups

While all organisations are vulnerable, certain groups face higher exposure:

• Executive Leadership: CEOs, CFOs and high-profile spokespeople are prime targets for impersonation, fraud, or misleading communications.
• Public-Facing Teams: Customer support, PR, and communications staff can be manipulated through fake interactions or media.
• Financial and Procurement Functions: Employees responsible for payments and contracts are particularly vulnerable to voice or video deepfake scams.

Women in Visible Roles: Women, particularly those in leadership or client-facing positions, are disproportionately targeted for harassment, defamation and sexualised deepfake content intended to intimidate, demean, or exploit. While deepfakes can affect anyone, evidence shows women in prominent roles are more frequently singled out, and the consequences they face – both personally and professionally – are often severe. This can include damage to reputation, emotional distress and increased vulnerability to online abuse or professional sabotage.

Identifying the teams and individuals most at risk allows businesses to implement targeted training, awareness programmes and protective measures, helping safeguard employees from both professional and personal harm.

What to Do in a Deepfake Situation

To manage these risks, businesses should incorporate deepfake awareness into cybersecurity and incident response plans and invest in detection tools that help identify synthetic content before it causes harm. When faced with a suspected deepfake incident, organisations should act systematically:

1. Verify Before Acting: Authenticate sources through independent channels before responding.
2. Isolate and Document: Capture metadata, timestamps and origin information for analysis.
3. Report Internally: Alert cybersecurity, legal and communications teams immediately.
4. Engage Detection Tools: Use AI-enabled deepfake detection software to assess authenticity.
5. Communicate Transparently: Issue clear, factual statements if stakeholders are affected.
6. Coordinate with Platforms: Work with social networks or hosting services to remove harmful content.
7. Review and Fortify: Analyse the incident to identify vulnerabilities and update policies, training and technology defences

For businesses, it’s important to understand the full scope of potential harm, keep up with evolving regulations and make sure your teams have the tools and knowledge to respond. Just as important is showing you’re taking action – letting employees know you take these threats seriously and reassuring those who may feel most at risk. And don’t fall into the trap of thinking your business is too small to be targeted; deepfakes can affect organisations of any size. Taking proactive steps sends a clear message that you’re prepared and looking out for both your people and your brand.