AI has changed the trafficking landscape on both sides of the fight. Traffickers now use generative AI to produce deepfake content for sextortion, run chatbots that groom children at scale, and exploit translation tools to reach victims across languages and borders. The UN Secretary-General warned in 2025 that AI is being weaponized to recruit, control, and exploit victims, and reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material rose more than 380 percent in a single year. But the same tools are showing up on the other side. AI now helps investigators scan thousands of online ads for trafficking indicators, flag exploitative conversations before they escalate, and identify victims through image analysis and pattern recognition. Both of these realities are accelerating at once, and the field has to reckon with that. This session draws on The Exodus Road’s nearly fifteen years of partnering with law enforcement across multiple countries. The presenter will walk through how traffickers are using AI, how investigators and tech companies are pushing back, and why the human side of this work (expertise, judgment, relationships, trauma-informed care) is something no tool can replace. The session closes with a challenge to the field: before we adopt any new technology, we need to be asking harder questions about whether it centers the people it’s supposed to protect, and whether the practitioners closest to the work actually have a seat at the table where those decisions get made.
Trigger Warning: This presentation contains information (written, spoken, or visual) that may be triggering or (re)traumatizing to attendees.
Preston Goff is Vice President of Global Communications at The Exodus Road, an international anti-trafficking organization whose efforts have contributed to the freedom of more than 6,000 survivors. He helped develop and launch the Influenced child digital safety education program and hosts the podcast, “Until All Are Free”.