TIAA says AI flag helped stop $3 million retirement scam
CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett said an alert and staff intervention kept a 76-year-old customer from losing his retirement savings.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
TIAA stopped a 76-year-old customer from moving his entire $3 million retirement portfolio after an artificial intelligence tool flagged the request as unusual, CEO Thasunda Brown Duckett said. The case shows how financial firms are using AI to detect fraud while still relying on workers to verify threats and intervene.
Duckett described the incident on Fortune’s Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast, saying the customer had been targeted by a scammer when he sought to withdraw the full account. The company’s system first detected that the transaction did not fit the customer’s normal pattern, she said.
After the alert, Duckett said, a portfolio manager raised the matter with TIAA’s fraud team. Fraud staff then spent hours trying to persuade the customer that he was being deceived, she said.
Duckett said the customer resisted at first because victims often do not want to accept that a scam is underway. A fraud specialist eventually contacted the man’s daughter, and TIAA prevented the funds from leaving the account, she said.
Fraud losses have climbed
Duckett said the episode reflects both the promise and limits of AI in finance. Fraudsters can use the technology to imitate voices, write persuasive messages and make realistic fake media, while companies can use similar tools to spot abnormal behavior before money moves.
The broader threat is large and growing, according to FBI data cited by Fortune. The FBI reported more than $20.8 billion in losses tied to about 1 million cybercrime complaints in 2025. Older adults filed the largest number of complaints and had the highest total losses, the FBI said.
In 2024, people older than 60 lost $4.8 billion to scams, while those ages 50 to 59 lost $2.5 billion, according to the FBI figures cited by Fortune. Fortune also reported that total cybercrime losses stood at $1 billion in 2015.
Duckett argued that the TIAA case depended on both technology and judgment by employees. She said AI alone would not have protected the customer without staff members who reviewed the alert, escalated the matter and contacted a family member.
Duckett says AI will change work
Duckett also used the example to make a broader point about employment as companies add AI tools. She told Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell that she does not expect a future in which people stop working because automation has taken over all jobs.
Some roles will disappear as technology changes, Duckett said, but she expects other work to grow around cybersecurity, fraud monitoring, AI review and analysis. She said companies will need more people checking what AI systems produce and watching for cyber risks.
Duckett said entry-level jobs will also change, though she did not say they would vanish. Younger workers may help companies understand new tools because many are already comfortable with digital technology, she said.
For workers and managers, Duckett said flexibility will be a key skill as companies rethink jobs around projects, problem-solving and work across teams. She also said leaders should discuss AI directly with employees because the technology has created anxiety about what it will mean for their roles.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.