AI to be key in Minnesota’s new fraud prevention program

Following the conclusion of Minnesota’s legislative season last month, state Chief Information Officer Tarek Tomes said one success included conversations around establishing an anti-fraud program expected to use artificial intelligence.

Tomes said talks have resulted in state agency leaders eyeing the establishment of a centralized investigative division within the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension dedicated to preventing fraud. He said the program could also allow the state to prototype “preemptive” AI technologies to combat fraud, particularly within the Medicaid system.

The new program is part of the state’s larger effort to curtail fraud of government assistance programs, which was rampant during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2023 report estimated that fraud against the federal Unemployment Insurance program alone during the COVID-19 pandemic totaled between $100 billion and $135 billion, and other estimates place the overall total even higher.

Minnesota has been particularly tough on fraud this year. The budget allocations follow an executive order Walz signed at the beginning of the year creating the antifraud unit and announcing that the state would begin kick off an experimental project to explore how AI could help with fraud prevention. Forty-six people have now been convicted for their roles in a $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme, which exploited the federally funded child nutrition program during the pandemic.

“One of the things that is really important is the fraud that exists kind of globally, isn’t restrictive to the private sector at all — trillions of dollars in individual fraud were people being exploited, being asked to pay tolls that don’t exist online, as well as organizations,” Tomes said. “I think 60% of global Fortune 100 companies are investing in anti-fraud efforts, and so government isn’t doing this because there’s a unique government problem. Really, the sophistication and tooling and AI that’s being used to commit crimes, to commit fraud, we have to make sure that we’re on the forefront of investing in tools to protect as well.”

Corrected June 23, 2025: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the new anti-fraud program was funded by the state’s upcoming fiscal year budget.