QBE North America Report Examines the Impact of Agentic AI on Commercial Espionage and Fraud
NEW YORK, NY – June 16, 2026 – QBE North America today announced the release of its Reimagining Commercial Espionage and Fraud in the Era of Agentic AI Report. The report, developed in partnership with Control Risks, examines how agentic artificial intelligence (AI) accelerates the speed and scale of AI-enabled espionage while introducing new threat dynamics.
“Agentic AI represents a step-change in how threat actors operate by compressing timelines and expanding capabilities in ways organizations have never faced before,” said Ian Walsh, Vice President and U.S. Cyber Product Leader, QBE North America.
Key themes explored in the report:
- Speed and scale of attacks is accelerating: Agentic AI models significantly accelerate the attack cycle, enabling tasks that once required a team of threat actors to be executed independently and in a fraction of the time.
- The threat landscape is becoming more complex and unpredictable: Agentic AI models leverage existing threats and attack pathways while also creating new, evolving entry points for exploitation.
- Lower barrier to entry for cybercriminals: Agentic AI models can lower the barrier to entry for less sophisticated threat actors to carry out commercial espionage activities that were once limited to highly skilled groups.
- Humans are still needed: Human threat actors set the goals and make key critical decisions during attacks. Within organizations, humans oversee the training and use of agentic AI systems and are the final decision-makers for ensuring compliance.
- Defensive strategies must evolve to keep pace: Strong foundational security practices, combined with AI-enabled detection, remain essential to mitigating increasingly advanced and fast-moving threats.
“The human element remains central in mitigating risk and building resilience,” said Walsh. “To stay ahead of evolving threats, organizations must act with speed, combining security fundamentals with AI-enabled defenses and comprehensive coverage.”
A QBE survey of 400 decision makers of IT, administration or insurance in businesses with 100 to 2,000 employees in the United States found that in the past year, nearly three in 10 U.S. businesses (29%) experienced at least one cyber incident where AI was believed to have been used as part of the attack.
More information about QBE’s cyber products is available at qbe.com/us/cyber.
About QBE North America
QBE North America is a global insurance leader that gets to the heart of what’s at risk for customers. Part of QBE Insurance Group Limited, QBE North America reported Gross Written Premiums in 2025 of $7.7 billion. QBE Insurance Group’s results can be found at qbe.com. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, QBE operates out of 26 countries around the globe, with a presence in every key insurance market. The North America division, headquartered in New York, conducts business primarily through its insurance company subsidiaries. The actual terms and conditions of any insurance coverage are subject to the language of the policies as issued. Additional information can be found at qbe.com/us or follow QBE North America on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
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