AI Outsmarts Human Red Teams in Phishing Tests

Hoxhunt Predicts Phishing-as-a-Service Will Adopt AI Spear Phishing Agents Rashmi Ramesh (rashmiramesh_) • April 7, 2025

No longer content to beat humans at chess and Go, artificial intelligence can now beat red teams at their own phishing game, at scale.

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AI has surpassed human red teams in crafting phishing attacks, at scale and with alarming success, asserts research from cybersecurity training firm Hoxhunt. The company's proprietary AI spear phishing agent, code-named JKR for Joker, in March outperformed human counterparts by 24%, a turnaround from a 31% deficit in 2023 when Hoxhunt ran a similar test.

"It's a Skynet moment for social engineering," the company said in a blog post, referencing the AI villain from the Terminator franchise. "We've proven that AI agents can create superior spear phishing attacks at scale."

JKR's edge comes from its ability to fine-tune ...