AI Compliance: How to Successfully Integrate AI into Your Compliance Workflows
It’s easy to think that the only way “AI” and “compliance” can belong in the same sentence is in the context of a robot overlord giving monotone but terrifying lectures to humans about complying with its commands. But as it turns out, AI can actually play a helpful role in compliance workflows without requiring an AI apocalypse first.
Compliance teams can use AI without compromising security or creating more problems than they solve. The trick is to avoid replacing human judgment with a chatbot in a suit, and instead find the right balance between automation and expertise.
Start with Low-Risk Wins
For many compliance professionals, AI can feel like that overly confident coworker who means well but doesn’t understand the stakes yet. Elena Shturman, a corporate compliance expert, puts it bluntly: “You can’t just drop sensitive info into a system without risking privilege or exposure.”
In heavily regulated functions like compliance and legal, AI adoption hasn’t exactly been speedy. And it’s not because the tools aren’t useful—it’s because the data is often too sensitive. Between attorney-client privilege and the uncertainty of how AI systems handle privacy, there’s a real risk of a misstep. As Elena points out, “most of us avoid it” for anything that touches confidential information.
However, AI can still be beneficial in low-risk areas. For instance, tools like qordata use AI to flag duplicate charges, policy violations, or suspicious spending patterns, saving professionals hours of manual review. Automation in areas like audit preparation can also be effective, utilizing AI to send reminders and centralize evidence request forms, thus cutting prep time almost in half.
AI Should Support Decision-Making, Not Replace It
Mircea Dima, a CTO and software engineer at AlgoCademy, advocates for automation only when it plays the right role. For example, a fintech startup he worked with trained an AI model on three years of historical compliance data to streamline policy review, allowing the team to complete their work in a quarter of the time.
Yet, there are warnings to heed. Mircea recounts a situation where a firm attempted to automate evidence collection for a SOC 2 audit, leading to gaps in compliance that auditors quickly spotted. AI excels at pattern recognition but struggles with regulatory complexities. Thus, the mantra becomes: “Do the menial labor with a computer, and the computer labor with a human.”
The ideal scenario involves using AI as a “smart assistant,” which surfaces data and proposes actions while keeping compliance professionals in the loop to assess materiality and regulatory interpretation.
Automate Evidence Collection
Matt Mayo, owner of Diamond IT, shares how integrating AI tools for audit readiness transformed compliance from a once-a-year scramble into a continuous and manageable process. By integrating platforms like GitHub, Google Workspace, and AWS, his team automated the collection of evidence for access controls and vendor risk reviews, reducing prep time by at least 70%.
Despite these successes, not all tasks are suitable for automation. For example, their attempts to use AI for policy writing resulted in technically accurate but contextually deficient policies. Thus, human judgment remains crucial for tasks like policy creation and risk assessments.
Keep Humans in Charge of the Fine Print
Peter Murphy, CEO and founder of Track Spikes, noted that AI can significantly reduce the time required for compliance documentation. His team has been able to draft safety certifications and material compliance forms with the help of AI, which are then reviewed for accuracy.
However, attempts to fully automate customer service compliance encountered pitfalls, such as overlooking minor shipping regulations that led to delays. This highlights that even small errors in compliance can lead to significant issues.
Peter concludes that AI has a role in policy-making, particularly in drafting initial versions, which can then be refined by legal advisors. In this model, AI sets the table, while humans decide what’s actually for dinner.
Conclusion
AI and compliance can indeed coexist harmoniously. Whether you’re overwhelmed with manual reviews, preparing for audits, or navigating regulatory updates, AI can serve as a valuable ally. The key is thoughtful implementation, where both human expertise and artificial intelligence work together.
Successful AI integration involves starting with low-risk, high-volume tasks where AI can provide immediate value, then gradually expanding into more complex workflows while ensuring human oversight at critical decision points. This approach not only minimizes the risk of costly mistakes but also builds confidence in AI systems over time.
