Financial institutions are racing to embed artificial intelligence into compliance functions, but new industry findings suggest the technology is reshaping workloads rather than simply reducing them.
The insights emerged from AI in Compliance: From Potential to Operational Impact, the opening session of StarCompliance’s three-part 2026 Global Compliance Benchmark Study Webinar Series.
The discussion brought together StarCompliance chief product officer Kelvin Dickenson, NatWest strategic compliance lead Gabby Byrne and Raymond James Financial chief compliance officer Rich Konefal.
The panel’s central theme was governance. As AI tools become more accessible across banks and asset managers, firms are moving past questions of access towards questions of control, with monitoring, employee training and extending existing surveillance frameworks to AI channels all cited as priorities. Protecting material non-public information and customer data remains a core concern as usage expands.
A second theme centred on AI literacy. Employees need to understand not just how to operate these tools, but how to interrogate their output, recognise inaccuracies and know when human judgement must override a machine-generated answer.
The panel also pointed to efficiency gains in reducing manual work, particularly around market-abuse investigations, where AI can assemble historical trading data and transaction context in minutes rather than hours, freeing analysts to focus on risk assessment rather than information-gathering.
However, the Benchmark Study surfaced a striking contradiction: while 23% of respondents reported reduced manual effort from AI, 26% said their workloads had actually increased. Faster reporting is generating demand for more reporting, and as routine tasks become automated, staff are increasingly absorbed by complex cases requiring deeper judgement.
On the build-versus-buy question, the panel noted that while AI has lowered the barrier to building internal tools, scaling compliance technology reliably still demands ongoing maintenance, integration work and regulatory expertise well beyond initial development.
The final takeaway urged firms early in their AI journey to resist adopting the technology for its own sake, instead starting with a defined business problem, testing an AI-led solution, and expanding based on demonstrated value.
Read the full StarCompliance post here.
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
