Tonic3 | Insights

Case Study: Accelerating Fraud Research Efficiency with Human-in-the-Loop AI

Written by Tonic3 | Aug 1, 2025 1:22:31 PM

Case Study

From Bottleneck to Bankable

Client: A Global Financial Services Firm

Industry: Financial Services, Fraud detection

63%

$775,000

5 Days

Increased team capacity In savings To complete, hindered by manual processes and back-and-forth internal communications.

 

Bottlenecks, Busywork, and Bottled Potential: Inside Level 1 Fraud Headaches

 

Our client, a global financial services firm, faced significant operational bottlenecks in their Level 1 fraud research team. Analysts were burdened by excessive manual effort and fragmented data sources, spending up to six hours per case navigating multiple, unintegrated systems. This led to:

  • Inefficiency: Repetitive, time-consuming data collection.
  • High False Positives: Difficulty in accurately identifying genuine fraud due to scattered, unstructured data.
  • Impeded Decision-Making: Challenges in integrating critical unstructured data into their proprietary risk model (their "secret sauce"), making it difficult for Level 2 analysts to quickly discern crucial information and make timely decisions.
  • Prolonged Case Cycles: A standard fraud case took approximately 5 days to complete, hindered by manual processes and back-and-forth internal communications.


Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Agent Orchestration

Recognizing that off-the-shelf AI solutions couldn't address their unique institutional knowledge and processes, our team partnered with the client to implement a custom Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) AI solution. Our approach focused on augmenting human capabilities rather than replacing them, preserving the client's proprietary risk model and expert judgment.

We deployed a multi-agent AI system designed to automate the initial "grunt work" of the Level 1 analysts. This intelligent system:

  1. Integrated disparate data sources, transforming manual data collection into an automated process.
  2. Pre-processed and weighted information according to the client's "secret sauce" risk model, including confidence scores for greater transparency.
  3. Provided Level 1 analysts with a pre-assessed report, allowing them to efficiently review, refine, and create the final risk assessment.
  4. Empowered Level 2 analysts with immediate, organized access to crucial information, enabling them to quickly identify key insights and accelerate critical decisions.


Turbocharged Fraud Assessments: From Six Hours to Four Minutes

The implementation of the HITL AI solution delivered immediate and significant operational efficiencies and financial returns:

  • Dramatic Time Savings: The initial 6 hours of manual data research per case was reduced to approximately 4 minutes of AI processing time.
  • Accelerated Case Completion: The average time to complete a standard fraud case plummeted from 5 days to just 2 days. (Note: Remaining time is attributed to necessary human interaction and communication, not technology limitations).
  • Significant Cost Reduction: A 46% reduction in operational costs, primarily driven by optimized man-hours.
  • Increased Capacity: A 63% increase in team capacity, freeing up valuable human resources for more complex tasks and strategic initiatives.
  • Exceptional ROI: An annualized ROI of $775,000 in savings, excluding implementation costs. 
 

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