Written by a human
In 2024, the FCA reported 75% already use AI in some form, because manual methods miss emerging risks and lead to steep fines. But when it comes to regulatory intelligence, most aren’t harnessing its full potential.
Proactive compliance is powered by strategic regulatory intelligence and AI analytics. From real-time monitoring tools to predictive insights, learn how AI is reshaping compliance from a defensive cost into a forward-looking advantage.
The role of regulatory intelligence in data-driven compliance
Regulatory intelligence refers to the strategic analysis and application of regulatory data. Primarily for compliance purposes, regulatory intelligence for financial services also covers business-level strategy, allowing organizations to remain agile, avoid missteps, and swiftly pivot when necessary.
Compliance is foundational, not just to avoid fines, but to protect trust, reputation, and operations. Regulatory bodies like the SEC and FINRA require:
- transparent and truthful disclosures
- strong internal controls
- strict recordkeeping
- close risk monitoring
While some have experimented, in 2025, only 1.6% of firms have fully integrated AI into their compliance systems. This means that many processes remain siloed and, while AI integration in compliance is rising, it’s still at an early stage.
With only a small fraction of firms fully leveraging AI, forward-thinking organizations have the opportunity to use it strategically to stay ahead.
Challenges to the traditional compliance approach
- Poor compliance analytics leads to poor visibility
- Manual compliance increases risk
- Managing multi-channel data
Poor compliance analytics leads to poor compliance visibility
Traditional approaches to compliance struggle because of poor analytics and cloud visibility.
When data is fragmented and monitoring is largely reactive, compliance teams lack a clear, real-time view of risks across the organization. This limited visibility creates blind spots, leaving issues undiscovered until regulators intervene.
Without stronger analytics, firms can’t anticipate problems, demonstrate transparency, or keep pace with the speed and complexity of today’s regulatory environment.
Manual compliance increases risk
Relying on spreadsheets, emails, and manual reviews leaves room for errors. In particular, gaps in oversight can lead to inconsistent recordkeeping and missed red flags.
As regulations evolve quickly, manual methods simply can’t keep up. But rushing exposes organizations to higher chances of non-compliance, and the regulatory penalties that follow.
But in this day and age, can firms really afford to risk the reputational damage that comes with enforcement action?
For example, British Airways was fined millions by the ICO after a data breach exposed personal information of 400,000 customers. The regulator noted poor processes and insufficient compliance safeguards. In particular, the manual tracking couldn’t scale up to meet the various country-specific enforcement approaches.
Managing multi-channel data
Customers and employees interact across dozens of channels, from email to chat, mobile apps, social media to call centers and even WhatsApp. Each channel generates sensitive data that falls under regulations and it’s the organization’s responsibility to capture, archive and surveil these communications. So each channel needs a compliance risk assessment and ongoing monitoring.
Yet, traditional ‘manual’ platforms, which rely on keyword matching, are easy to get around, creating blind spots. Instead, AI platforms like Global Relay implement semantic understanding to add context to words and phrases, reducing the risk of false positives while increasing accurate risk identification.
Choose Global Relay for AI regulatory insights
Global Relay’s platform encompasses a number of AI-powered compliance analytics tools, including:
- An app for business-compliant communications
- A data archive to store and manage comms
- A communication surveillance platform
- An e-discovery platform for legal teams
With dedicated AI regulatory insights for compliance, Global Relay strategically deploys AI for optimized efficiency, without adding to compliance risks. One feature is the real-time risk assessment tool, which identifies suspicious activity, outside of normal expectations.
The large language model analyzes text and voice sentiment to review whole conversations rather than individual sentences.
A unique feature of the Global Relay platform is its adaptability. Instead of retraining as the world, and regulation evolves, we upgrade and replace our model in accordance with continuous AI innovation.
Benefits of AI-powered regulatory intelligence
The benefits of AI-powered regulatory intelligence in 2025 are:
- Increased oversight for risk management
- Automated regulatory compliance
- Cost effective operations
Risk management
Applying AI to the risk assessment process can streamline it, continuously scanning data to flag anomalies and detect potential threats in real time. This means businesses can identify emerging risks, whether financial, operational, or reputational, before they escalate into costly problems.
Moreover, AI-powered regulatory intelligence helps decision makers to act with clarity, taking faster and smarter action to prevent risks from materialising. Alternatively, agentic systems can even make some of these decisions on a firms’ behalf, depending on the rules-based system the AI abides by.
Regulatory compliance
Working with a regulatory intelligence platform that harnesses AI can also aid with compliance, transforming the legal function from reactive to proactive.
Traditionally, large firms are scrambling to catch up with new rules or respond to violations after they occur. But using AI to analyse regulatory trends offers foresight, enabling businesses to adapt policies and train teams before they add to the risk.
By anticipating regulatory shifts, AI not only reduces the likelihood of penalties but also positions organizations as industry leaders in ethical and responsible practices.
Cost-effective operations
As automation is implemented effectively, it’s only a matter of time before cost reductions follow. Regulatory intelligence systems like Global Relay can detect potential misconduct, or early signs of data breaches, minimizing the time and resources spent on investigations.
By catching these issues early, organizations avoid the financial and reputational damage that comes with delayed responses. It ultimately leads to more resilient business environments and reduces the risk of costly regulatory penalties.
Building a modern compliance strategy
In 2025, regulatory intelligence plays a critical role in compliance strategies. As regulations continue to evolve and firms grow across multiple jurisdictions, AI helps firms to stay ahead of the constant changes.
Work with Global Relay to safeguard your employee, customer and partner communications. With military-level encryption, our platforms upgrade to meet technological advancements and provide an intuitive navigation dashboard to help professionals meet their compliance demands.
Book a demo to explore Global Relay’s AI regulatory intelligence suite.