Survey: UK Workers Are Using AI to Alter Expense Receipts to Top Up Their Salaries
Emburse, the global leader in AI-powered travel and expense management, has released new survey findings that expose a troubling trend in the UK workplace: 29% of UK employees — nearly one in three — admit to using AI tools to generate or manipulate expense receipts in order to supplement their take-home pay. The research, which surveyed 1,000 working professionals across the UK, reveals both a fraud risk for employers and a financial wellbeing crisis for workers navigating ongoing cost-of-living pressures.
An even broader group — 40% of respondents — admitted they have either submitted personal purchases as business expenses or seriously considered doing so due to concerns about their own finances. The findings point to a workforce under significant financial strain, where outdated corporate expense policies may be inadvertently pushing employees toward fraudulent behaviour.
"Far too many employees are effectively subsidising business spending themselves, paying for work costs on personal cards and waiting to be paid back. They are effectively being forced to act as short-term lenders to their employer."
— Marne Martin, CEO, EmburseThe Hidden Cost of Upfront Expense Policies
A core driver behind the rise in expense fraud appears to be corporate reimbursement processes that leave employees out of pocket for extended periods. The Emburse survey found that more than two-thirds (68%) of UK office workers have incurred bank fees — including overdraft charges and credit card interest — after being required to pay for business expenses using their own personal debit or credit cards.
The delays compound the problem: three in five employees (61%) report waiting more than a week to be reimbursed for work-related spending. Half (51%) say these delayed repayments have caused them genuine financial strain. Against the backdrop of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, the impact is far from trivial — for many workers, a week without reimbursement can mean missed bill payments, reliance on credit, or an overdraft penalty on top of an already stretched budget.
The survey also highlights a near-universal preference for systemic change: nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents said they would prefer to use a company credit card for business expenses rather than laying out their own money and waiting to be paid back.
"The research reveals a painful truth: when companies require staff to cover business expenses upfront, the arrangement can effectively amount to an interest-free loan from employee to employer."
— Marne Martin, CEO, EmburseAI Makes Fraud Easier — and Harder to Detect
The accessibility of AI image-generation tools has dramatically lowered the barrier to receipt fraud. Employees can now use widely available — and often free — platforms to fabricate convincing restaurant bills, hotel invoices, and transportation receipts in a matter of minutes. According to broader industry research, approximately 30% of financial controllers have noticed a significant increase in fake receipts entering their systems, with many noting the quality has become sophisticated enough to fool the human eye.
For employers, this creates a dual challenge: protecting against a growing fraud vector while simultaneously addressing the underlying financial pressures that drive employees toward it in the first place. Expense management platforms are increasingly deploying their own AI-based detection tools to flag anomalies, but the arms race between fraud generation and fraud detection is intensifying rapidly.
Emburse's CEO Marne Martin framed the issue as an opportunity for companies to modernise: businesses that rethink outdated expense processes — moving toward faster reimbursements, corporate card programmes, and more transparent workflows — are better positioned to reduce both fraud risk and employee financial stress simultaneously.
Rising AI-Driven Expense Fraud. 29% of UK employees admit to using AI tools to generate or manipulate expense receipts — a direct result of increasingly accessible image-generation technology.
Financial Strain Is the Root Cause. 68% of UK office workers have incurred bank fees from covering business expenses with personal funds, and 51% say slow reimbursements have caused them direct financial hardship.
Reimbursement Delays Are a Core Problem. Three in five employees wait over a week to be paid back for work expenses — a pace that creates cash flow problems for workers already under cost-of-living pressure.
Employees Want Corporate Card Solutions. 73% of UK workers say they would prefer using a company card over spending their own money, suggesting a straightforward structural fix that many employers have yet to adopt.
Modernising Expense Processes Reduces Risk. Companies that invest in faster, more transparent reimbursement systems and AI-based detection tools are better placed to address both employee wellbeing and employer fraud exposure simultaneously.