AI-Driven Social Engineering: Defending Against the Next Phase of Cybercrime

Cybercriminals are using artificial intelligence to make social engineering attacks more convincing, personalized, and difficult to detect. As generative AI lowers the barriers to creating realistic phishing messages, impersonation attempts, and deceptive communications, enterprise security leaders face an increasingly complex threat landscape. In this session, "AI-Driven Social Engineering: Defending Against the Next Phase of Cybercrime," from COLLIDE Data + AI Conference 2026, Sundari Parekh, Global Deputy CISO @ TrendAI, addresses the evolving intersection of artificial intelligence, social engineering, and enterprise cybersecurity. Traditional social engineering exploits human trust, urgency, and organizational processes. AI introduces additional challenges by enabling attackers to generate convincing content, adapt messaging, and potentially scale deception across multiple communication channels. Deepfake audio, synthetic identities, and AI-generated phishing content are among the emerging threats organizations must consider when evaluating their security posture. For CISOs, enterprise technology executives, and AI leaders, defending against these risks requires more than conventional awareness training. Organizations must consider how identity verification, security controls, employee readiness, and AI governance work together to protect critical information and business operations. This session provides an opportunity to explore the changing nature of AI-enabled cybercrime and the defensive considerations enterprises should prioritize. 🎯 Key Topics to Explore: AI-Driven Social Engineering: How generative AI can make phishing, impersonation, and other deception-based attacks more sophisticated. Deepfakes and Synthetic Content: The security challenges associated with AI-generated voices, images, and convincing digital identities. Enterprise Cybersecurity Strategies: Approaches to strengthening defenses against AI-enabled threats targeting employees and business processes. Human Risk and Security Awareness: Why employee education, identity verification, and organizational readiness remain important security considerations. AI Governance and Cyber Resilience: How security leadership, risk management, and responsible AI practices can help organizations prepare for emerging cyber threats. 🎤 Featured Speaker Sundari Parekh Global Deputy CISO | TrendAI Session Brought to You By: TrendAI About COLLIDE Data + AI Conference 2026 Organized by Data Science Connect, COLLIDE Data + AI Conference 2026 took place on October 1, 2026, at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference brought together enterprise decision-makers, data and AI executives, cybersecurity leaders, and leading AI solution providers to explore the evolving data and AI landscape, scale AI responsibly, and exchange practical insights with industry peers. Learn more about COLLIDE: https://datasciconnect.com/events/collide/ ▶️ Watch More from COLLIDE 2026 Watch the full session to explore how AI is changing social engineering threats and what enterprises should consider when strengthening their cybersecurity defenses. Subscribe to the Data Science Connect YouTube channel for more executive presentations, technical sessions, and industry discussions from COLLIDE Data + AI Conference 2026 covering AI security, enterprise AI, responsible AI, and cybersecurity innovation.