Bonus Episode — Powered by Safeguard:Building Smarter, Not Harder: Using AI to Eliminate Fraud’s Busy Work with Ben Graf

In this bonus episode of Banking on Fraudology, powered by Safeguard , Hailey Windham talks with Ben Graf, a self-taught AI expert in the neobank space. Ben embodies the spirit of curiosity and courage driving the next wave of fraud-fighting transformation.

The conversation dives into what it really looks like to learn AI from the ground up, emphasizing that the future of fraud prevention isn't about replacing people, but empowering them through technology.

Key Takeaways: AI, Innovation, and Fraud-Fighting Empowerment

Using AI to Learn AI: Ben explains how he used varying LLM chats (like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini) as a coach or mentor, experimenting for hours to understand their capabilities, consistency, and how to effectively prompt them.

• This approach helped him translate technical language and practices (like data analysis, SQL, and JavaScript) into actionable knowledge for his team, breaking down communication barriers.
• The hardest part was knowing where to start, but the key was realizing that "something is better than nothing" and compounding knowledge quickly breaks down barriers.

Practical AI Applications for Eliminating Busy Work: AI should be used to make teams more efficient and help professionals focus strategically.

• Automating Document Verification: AI can use OCR to pull data, flag inconsistencies, and serve up summaries for identity, business, and income documents, which are often the most time-consuming parts of a review.
• Data Retrieval and System Silos: AI can help team members write their own SQL queries to retrieve data from data warehouses, dramatically reducing requests to the data team.
• Product and Feature Proposals: AI tools can mock up full dashboard concepts and even provide code snippets to give engineers a visual and break down communication barriers between fraud and technical teams.

The Power of Empowerment and Buy-In: Leadership should create a culture where fraud fighters are empowered to explore and innovate.

• The magic of time savings lies in filling the time freed from "busy work" (like false positives) with new, high-impact tasks, whether that's cost savings in fraud loss or better customer retention.
• Teams are advised to keep proprietary or PII information out of the loop and find safe spaces to explore, remembering that everyone is still figuring out what AI can do.

Get in the mood of being grateful for the fraud-fighting community, and be reminded of how strong the fraud-fighting community truly is. 

About Hailey Windham:

As a 2023 CU Rockstar Recipient, Hailey Windham, CFCS (Certified Financial Crimes Specialist) demonstrated unbounding passion for educating her community, organization and credit union membership on scams in the market and best practices to avoid them. She has implemented several programs within her previous organizations that aim at holistically learning about how to prevent and detect fraud targeted at membership and employees.

Windham’s initiatives to build strong relationships and partnerships throughout the credit union community and industry experts have led to countless success stories. Her applied knowledge of payments system programs combined with her experience in fraud investigations offers practical concepts that are transferable, no matter the organization’s size.

Connect with Hailey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hailey-windham/