Train employees to pause before acting on an unexpected request, verify consequential requests through a trusted channel they locate independently, and report suspicious messages or interactions promptly. The goal is not to guess whether a message was written by AI: polished wording can be deceptive, and the same safe habits apply whether a threat uses AI or not.
What employees should learn to recognize
AI can help attackers create more convincing phishing messages. NIST advises taking “a second, or third, look” at any message asking for action; fluent, professional language is not proof that a message is legitimate. NIST’s phishing guidance, updated August 19, 2025, is written for small businesses, but the verification practices are useful more broadly: NIST phishing guidance.
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Teach employees to assess the requested action, the sender, and whether the request fits the normal process and context. A request deserves extra scrutiny if it asks someone to:
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- Log in through a message or disclose sensitive information.
- Send money, change payment details, or transfer funds.
- Act urgently on behalf of an executive, vendor, or familiar organization.
These are warning signs, not proof that a message is malicious or AI-generated. Phishing can arrive by email, text, or social media, and may impersonate familiar people or organizations. Training should make clear that the decisive question is not “Does this sound like AI?” but “Is this action expected, and have I verified it safely?”
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Teach a pause-and-verify routine
- Stop before acting. Do not click, download, reply with information, log in, or send funds while an unexpected or unusual request is unresolved.
- Check the context and process. Ask whether the request is expected, whether the sender and timing make sense, and whether it follows the organization’s usual procedure.
- Verify independently. For urgent or high-impact requests, contact the person or organization using a known phone number, an established internal directory, or another trusted channel. Do not use the link, phone number, or reply path in the suspicious message to verify it.
- Report it using the organization’s designated channel. Employees should know exactly where that channel is and what information to include, according to the organization’s procedure.
NIST recommends directly verifying urgent requests from leaders or vendors. CISA also advises organizations to establish policies for reporting phishing and using official communications channels in its Four Cybersecurity Essentials for SLTTs, published August 29, 2025. That fact sheet is specifically aimed at state, local, tribal, and territorial governments; its reporting and communications principles can inform other organizations’ training.
Practice with scenarios employees might actually encounter
Do not limit exercises to obvious email scams. Build scenarios around the channels and workflows people use, such as an urgent executive request, a vendor payment change, a shared-file notification, a login prompt, or a conversation that shifts from email to text or voice. Make clear that these are practice scenarios, not evidence that every such message was generated by AI.
CISA recommends simulations that mimic threats an agency might face. For meaningful practice, employees need more than a test: show them the safe verification and reporting action the scenario was meant to exercise, and make the reporting route easy to find.
Match difficulty to the learning goal
A simulation that is much easier to spot than a realistic attack may say little about how prepared employees are for harder cases. NIST’s Phish Scale provides a method for rating the difficulty of simulated phishing emails, helping program managers interpret results in context: NIST TN 2276, NIST Phish Scale User Guide. Avoid treating a raw click rate as a complete measure of readiness; consider scenario difficulty and whether employees reported the message.
Make reporting and recovery part of the lesson
Recognition training is incomplete unless employees know how to report a suspicious message—and what to do if they have already clicked a link, opened a file, replied, or submitted credentials. Rehearse the organization’s actual reporting path and tell staff that prompt reporting is still useful after an interaction. It gives the organization an opportunity to respond.
Use the organization’s established incident-response procedures for any follow-up actions, such as account recovery or escalation. Training material should identify the correct internal contacts and official channels rather than improvising technical instructions that may not fit the organization.
Tailor training to roles and keep it current
All employees need a clear routine for pausing, independently verifying, and reporting. Add role-specific practice where a person’s responsibilities create different risks: for example, staff who handle payments should rehearse how to verify payment changes, while security personnel need practice handling and escalating reports under their procedures.
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Review training when business processes or threat patterns change, and use evaluation to check whether staff can perform the behaviors the program teaches. NIST’s workforce and risk management quick-start guide, SP 1308, offers additional context for adapting workforce decisions as threats and technologies evolve: NIST SP 1308.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Evaluate the program without overstating results
Use measures that help improve the program rather than relying on a single simulation result. NIST SP 800-50 Rev. 1 discusses metrics and evaluation as part of program management, while the Phish Scale helps put simulated-email difficulty in context. Track whether employees can find and use the reporting channel, whether they verify high-impact requests through an independent source, and how results change across relevant scenarios over time. The official materials cited here do not establish a specific reduction in clicks or incidents from AI-threat training, so avoid promising a numerical effect.
When choosing an approach, compare its fit against the organization’s needs:
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- Does it reflect the organization’s actual risks and communication channels?
- Can scenarios be tailored to different roles?
- Is reporting simple to locate and practice?
- Are simulation results interpreted in light of difficulty and reporting behavior?
- Can the program evaluate learning and behavior over time, and update material as threats evolve?
CISA’s NICCS catalog lists an online self-paced course, “Fundamentals of AI-Enhanced Phishing and Ransomware,” whose listed objectives include understanding AI-driven tactics and developing mitigation strategies. The listing was last published February 27, 2025; treat it as a resource lead, not a guarantee of current enrollment availability or an endorsement: NICCS catalog record.
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