For a small business trying to establish itself online, AI can feel like a great equalizer. It can produce website copy, images, and customer-facing content in a fraction of the time it once took, allowing smaller organizations to build a professional presence without the resources of a large marketing team.
But the same tools can be used to replicate what a business has built.
Trust is often one of an SMB’s most valuable assets. Customers may know a smaller company by its name, website, email address, or online reputation. If a criminal can reproduce those signals convincingly, the business can find itself competing against a false version of itself.
A Smaller Barrier to Larger Deception
Creating a convincing fake business used to require considerable effort. Attackers needed to build websites, develop credible messaging, and create visual assets convincing enough to deceive people.
AI removes much of that friction. Fraudsters can produce convincing content and digital experiences quickly, then repeat the process across multiple targets. Impersonation no longer needs to be a highly sophisticated, individually crafted operation to become effective.
In 2026, Google alleged that cybercriminals used AI to generate 1.5 million malicious URLs to impersonate businesses.
The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recorded more than 859,000 cybercrime complaints in 2024, with reported losses exceeding $16.6 billion. Business email compromise, phishing, investment fraud, and impersonation were among the major sources of reported losses.
For SMBs, the consequences can be an especially difficult pill to swallow. A large enterprise may have dedicated teams monitoring domains and responding to abuse. Smaller businesses may have to manage the same problem, with little or no security team, alongside everything else.
The Problem With Looking Legitimate
The internet has traditionally relied heavily on appearance as a shortcut for trust. A professional website, familiar branding, and polished communications can create an immediate impression of legitimacy.
AI is weakening those signals.
A fraudulent business can now use AI to create convincing copy, images, reviews, and customer interactions. A fake website may look just as professional as the genuine one.
This changes the question customers need to ask. It is no longer simply, “Does this look legitimate?” It is, “How can I verify that it is legitimate?”
That distinction is important for SMBs because their digital reputation may depend on a relatively small number of recognizable trust signals. If those signals can be copied, businesses need to make the genuine ones easier to identify.
Branded domains, consistent communications, and recognizable digital identities can provide part of that reassurance.
Identity Needs to Follow the Customer
The challenge becomes more complicated as customers interact with businesses across more digital channels.
A company may have a website, email presence, social profiles, marketplace listings, and search results, while AI assistants increasingly influence how people discover businesses.
Digital identity can therefore no longer be treated as something confined to a company’s website.
For an SMB, consistency across these touchpoints can become a practical security measure. Customers should have clear ways to distinguish legitimate communications from fraudulent ones, rather than relying on design or language that an attacker can reproduce.
A domain can provide a consistent reference point for customers. It connects websites and email, reinforces brand identity, and gives customers somewhere they can expect to find the genuine organization.
That does not make a domain a security control on its own. DNSSEC, registry locks, MFA, firewalls, endpoint protection, and monitoring all remain important.
But digital identity should form part of the wider security conversation.
Visibility Is the First Line of Defence
Protecting that identity requires organizations to know what they actually own.
As businesses grow, domains can be registered by different teams for campaigns, products, or infrastructure. Without clear ownership, an organization can lose track of what is active and what could be vulnerable to misuse.
For SMBs, keeping this process straightforward is particularly important.
An accurate domain inventory provides a starting point. From there, organizations can monitor for lookalike registrations, investigate suspicious activity, and take action when domains are being used to impersonate them.
Lookalike domains can differ by only one character or use visually similar characters. Combined with AI-generated content, the resulting deception can be remarkably convincing.
Early visibility can give a business an opportunity to respond before an impersonation attempt becomes a larger customer or reputational problem.
Trust Becomes a Security Responsibility
AI is not going to make digital impersonation disappear. As the technology becomes more accessible, reproducing a convincing business identity is likely to become easier.
The answer is not for SMBs to build increasingly elaborate digital experiences. It is to make genuine identity easier to verify.
That means knowing which domains belong to the organization, assigning responsibility for them, monitoring for suspicious activity, and ensuring legitimate communications are consistent and recognizable.
Businesses can also consider Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, which can help verify the actual business behind the certificate, not just the DNS. This extra layer of security can be a visual representation to customers of the authenticity of a site.
AI has made it easier than ever to build a business that looks legitimate. The next challenge is making sure customers can tell the difference between the business and an imitation.
In an environment where almost anyone can create a convincing brand, proving which one is yours is becoming part of cybersecurity itself.
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About Mike Chattan
Mike Chattan is the Senior Director of Domain Operations at Network Solutions, where he leads initiatives on domain strategy, digital identity, and online brand protection. With extensive experience in the domain industry, he works at the intersection of internet infrastructure, customer trust, and cybersecurity. He helps organizations strengthen their digital presence and navigate the evolving risks of online impersonation and domain abuse.
Mike can be reached online at mike.chattan@newfold.com or on his LinkedIn.
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