Security researchers warn AI-generated phishing now mimics legitimate email

Microsoft and independent reporting show cybercriminals are using generative AI to craft highly personalized, context-aware phishing across email, SMS and voice. Microsoft Security Blog reported a multi-stage adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) phishing and business email compromise (BEC) campaign abusing SharePoint on 2026-01-21. A prior Microsoft post (2026-01-20) flagged AI-driven risks to identity and network access. SecurityWeek's Cyber Insights (2026-01-16) documents rising social-engineering sophistication across channels.

Attackers pair AI-generated sender personas, calendar-aware content and corporate jargon with multi-stage landing pages (SharePoint-hosted in Microsoft’s report) to harvest credentials and evade human review. These messages adapt to each channel, reducing the effectiveness of signature- and rule-based filters. Microsoft describes how AiTM flows plus BEC escalation let attackers move from credential theft to account takeover and lateral movement.

For defenders, this shifts phishing from a single-email issue to a broader identity and access problem. Organizations should accelerate phishing-resistant MFA, deploy AI-aware detection and telemetry, enforce least-privilege access and prepare rapid incident response. Microsoft’s Jan. 20 guidance lists four priorities for AI-era identity and network security. Expect these campaigns to grow in volume and fidelity until detection and authentication are modernized.

Why It Matters

• AI scales personalized, context-aware lures across email, SMS and voice — static filters and training alone will miss many attacks.
• Enforce phishing-resistant MFA (hardware security keys or FIDO2) to block credential theft from AiTM flows.
• Deploy AI-aware detection and telemetry to surface context-based anomalies across channels and correlate signals for faster detection.
• Harden identity and access now (least privilege, conditional access) and ready rapid incident response — Microsoft lists these as top priorities for 2026.