Our fourth annual Industry Insights Report brings together insights from across the community to map the biggest trends and challenges impacting compliance and surveillance professionals. From the return of channel bans to the transformative impact of AI, read on for key insights into how your peers and the industry are negotiating the fast-evolving compliance landscape.

We surveyed compliance and surveillance professionals across financial services firms worldwide from February 2026 to April 2026 to capture a snapshot of the challenges they’re facing, the compliant communications, monitoring, and archiving solutions used to tackle them, and what future risks they’re preparing for.

66% of respondents said they are banning communications channels – a 26% increase compared to 2025

WhatsApp is the most banned channel, with 34% choosing to ban use in their business

Firms say comprehensively monitoring all their communications channels is their biggest compliance challenge (37%)

58% of respondents see channel bans as an effective solution – up from 48% in last year’s report

54% of firms not using AI for compliance or surveillance intend to introduce it in the next year

Opinion is split on whether we need more AI regulation (45%) or whether we need more regulatory clarity on AI (41%)

44% of respondents think that AI will be the biggest compliance challenge of 2027

The biggest barriers to AI adoption are data security, concerns around explainability, and a lack of regulatory clarity

North American firms lead in channel bans at 67% compared to just 28% of EMEA firms

Firms in North America are narrowing the AI adoption gap, with 55% committing to onboarding AI in the next year

Data privacy concerns are the biggest barrier to AI adoption for firms based in North America (57%) – but it’s a lack of regulatory clarity in EMEA (42%)

Voice transcription and translation is driving AI adoption in EMEA (53%) and the rest of the world (80%)

Our Industry Insights Report is informed by anonymous responses from the compliance and surveillance community itself, giving deep insight into questions including:

Which channels firms are banning – and why?

• “We don’t use WhatsApp or Telegram – there is a certain degree of distrust, accountability, and historical auditing.” – Product Growth, Financial Services, EMEA
• “All channels not specifically listed in the firm’s WSPs are banned.” – Chief Compliance Officer, Financial Services, North America
• “We have not outright ‘banned’ but do not allow business communications over unarchivable channels.” – CFO, Financial Services, North America
• “All channels are banned except WhatsApp, which is only permitted through the Global Relay Messaging App.” – Director, Financial Services, North America

What will be the biggest compliance or surveillance challenge of the next 12 months?

• “The biggest risk comes from big box AI companies, and their customers not being able to audit how decisions are made and where the data is sent.”
• “Thinking that compliance and surveillance can take their foot off the gas because of possible laxing of regulation.”
• “How to prove AI is working as intended – and consistently – to a regulator.”
• “Handling an ever-increasing volume of communications, balanced against staffing.”

From 2023 to the present our Industry Insights Report has surveyed compliance and surveillance professionals worldwide and used their expert insights to paint a picture of the shifting compliance landscape. Our reports seek to answer a range of pressing questions, including:

• What are the biggest compliance challenges for firms in 2026?
• How can AI be used to increase compliance?
• Is WhatsApp a compliance risk?
• How are firms using AI for communications surveillance?
• Does AI present a compliance risk?

Our report has mapped considerable shifts in priorities and how firms leverage compliance technology and surveillance solutions to overcome a range of challenges year-on-year. For more on our previous reports, head to the links below:

• Industry Insights: Compliant Communications 2025 – Last year’s report continued to track how firms were refining their off-channel communications strategy, examined whether social media presents risk, and how AI was maturing in the compliance space.
• Industry Insights: Compliant Communications 2024 – Our 2024 report explored whether firms trusted channel bans, how they were approaching mobile device policies, and whether they were beginning to onboard AI.
• Industry Insights: Compliant Communication 2023 – Our foundational report focused on off-channel communications risk during a period of high-profile enforcement actions driven by U.S. regulators.