Artificial Intelligence and Human Trafficking: How AI-Enabled Technologies Are Transforming Recruitment, Exploitation, and Criminal Operations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how human traffickers identify, recruit, and exploit victims. Generative AI (GenAI) can amplify traditional trafficking tactics by making deceptive communications more convincing and easier to produce at scale. AI-generated content and synthetic media can also support fraudulent identities, social engineering, and coercion. These capabilities are already evident in trafficking-fueled scam centers, where human trafficking increasingly intersects with cyber-enabled fraud and transnational organized crime.

This Emerging Risks White Paper examines how AI can act as a force multiplier throughout the human trafficking lifecycle and what that means for public safety agencies. It explores how traffickers may use AI to target and recruit victims, facilitate grooming and exploitation, and support criminal operations. The paper also examines the challenges facing investigators as human trafficking becomes more closely linked to cybercrime and financial crime. The recommendations provide practical steps agencies can take to identify AI-enabled activity, strengthen information sharing, adapt prevention efforts, and enhance investigative capabilities.