Dawinium Research Captures Trends Causing an Agentic “Identity Crisis” in Digital Commerce

97% of organizations report an increase in AI attacks; with 89% expecting non-human traffic to surge, businesses are caught between blocking legitimate AI commerce and failing to stop fraudulent agents

SAN FRANCISCO, March 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New research from Darwinium, the AI fraud prevention company, exposes the structural risks agentic commerce introduces into the global digital economy. Despite 97% of organizations reporting an increase in AI attacks, only 36% can stop fraud at any point in the customer journey. Just 52% can explicitly track or label AI-assisted fraud. The result is a $3 million annual blind spot, with businesses losing nearly as much revenue to static fraud controls that block good customers as they are to the fraudsters themselves.

The research captured four trends that underlie the challenges associated with fighting digital fraud in the age of agentic e-commerce:

1.  The AI Fraud "Attribution Gap" Exposes a Major Flaw in Corporate Readiness:

• • 97% of businesses report an increase in AI-facilitated attacks over the past year, with 45% reporting improved Fraud-as-a-service/automation kits, 42% reporting AI is increasing attacker targeting precision and 41% report it's being used for better evasion.
  • 95% of organizations claim to be prepared for AI threats, yet only 36% of companies can stop fraud as it arises across the customer journey. Most are limited to catching threats at isolated checkpoints like login or checkout.
  • 52% of organizations cannot explicitly track or label AI-assisted fraud; they are relying on broad-brush security measures that trigger massive customer churn.
    

2.  AI-Powered Fraud Creates Deep Financial Impact and Customer Churn:

• • 60% of companies report losing more than 25% of their accounts that have been hit by fraud events.
  • Businesses report an average of $4.5M annual impact of AI-enabled fraud losses.
  • $3.1M revenue impact reported from false positives, accidentally blocking legitimate customers with “blunt-force” fraud tools.
    

3.  Agentic Commerce Is Exposing an Identity Crisis and Liability Vacuum: As the market moves toward autonomous agentic commerce, the human vs. good bot vs. bad bot identity crisis deepens. 

• • Nearly all organizations (89%) expect non-human traffic to increase, but the market is split on how to handle legitimate agentic traffic: 48% allow it by default with monitoring, while 31% proactively block it.
  • The top blocker to adoption is authentication and identity binding (46%), followed by the challenge of distinguishing good from bad automation (40%).
  • The urgency to act is clear: 95% of organizations have made Agentic AI a Top Five security priority for 2026, with nearly half (46%) ranking it in their top three
  • When an AI agent-driven transaction goes wrong, no one agrees on who should pay: 39% say the AI/agent provider should be liable, 20% say the customer, and only 15% support a shared liability model - leaving a governance vacuum at the center of agentic commerce.

4.  Deepfakes Have Gone Mainstream and Omnichannel: Deepfakes are no longer edge cases, they have become commonplace and infiltrating the entire journey:

• • 93% of organizations have encountered deepfake-style attempts in the past 12 months (45.4% say multiple times).
  • The top entry points are:
    • Payments/checkout (22%)
    • Customer support/call centers (16%)
    • And Onboarding/Identity verification (15%)

"Our research shows that AI traffic is surging but businesses can't tell the difference between fraudulent and legitimate agentic commerce,” said Alisdair Faulkner, Co-founder and CEO of Darwinium. "When they can't identify a bot’s intent, they resort to blunt-force measures that either approve fraudulent transactions or block legitimate transactions – both of which cause millions in lost revenue and damaged relationships. That’s why the focus for 2026 must be on end-to-end visibility into AI traffic and on tracking a user's or bot’s intent across the entire customer journey. If you can't see the full picture, you can't protect your business."

About the Research
The survey was conducted by RedPoint exclusively for Darwinium in February 2026. It polled 500 senior professionals – spanning C-suite to hands-on fraud analyst roles – across fintech, eCommerce, gaming and gambling, banking and financial services, and travel and hospitality companies with $30 million or more in annual revenue in the US and UK.

About Darwinium
Darwinium is the AI Fraud Prevention Company, built to protect and grow revenue at every touchpoint across the customer journey. Its edge-based risk decisioning platform distinguishes trusted from risky human and AI behavior, resulting in 50% less fraud and 40% greater operational efficiency. From first interaction through high-risk actions and payments, Darwinium protects the moments that matter most, so digital leaders can confidently grow and protect revenue.​ Learn more at www.darwinium.com.

Media Contact:
Sherlyn Rijos-Altman
Montner Tech PR
srijos@montner.com

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