Generative AI is giving employees a new way to fabricate expense receipts, creating a growing fraud challenge for corporate finance departments.
New data from expense-auditing firm AppZen suggests AI image generators are rapidly replacing older methods of creating fake receipts while making them easier to produce at scale.
According to AppZen, its systems detected 1,471 AI-generated receipts submitted by 745 employees at 174 companies during the 12 months ending May 15, 2026. About one-third of those employees submitted AI-generated receipts more than once.
The share of fake receipts AppZen identified as AI-generated rose from 0% in March 2025 to 70.8% by mid-May 2026. Those receipts represented $148,143 in claimed expenses.
AppZen detected AI-generated receipts across multiple industries and countries. At one Fortune 10 company, 142 employees across 22 countries submitted 340 such receipts representing $34,953 in expense claims.
