Regulatory compliance is complicated, and it’s only becoming more so. For example, the US finance industry is overseen by no fewer than ten regulators, while pharma increasingly has to meet the regulatory requirements not just of the FDA, but of global actors like the World Health Organization and the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to name a few.
As industries become more global, regulations more complex and non-compliance more costly, organizations are turning towards AI-driven solutions to help monitor regulatory developments and maintain compliance.
The Business Case for AI in Regulatory Tracking
One of the key benefits of AI is its ability to quickly and accurately process large datasets, all the while “learning” as it goes. While humans may be able to keep track of a subsection of regulations within a niche sector, there comes a point where scaling our efforts becomes time or cost-prohibitive. An AI, on the other hand, can be trained to automatically track, monitor and report on regulatory change, helping businesses quickly identify and conform to new regulations.
Here are three ways that AI can deliver powerful ROI in the regulatory space.
- Analyzing texts and delivering insights
Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), AIs can be trained to analyze bodies of text, drawing trends, themes and insights from them. These text-based data sets can comprise all sorts of documents, from the regulatory publications themselves through to press releases, commentary, and even social media. The resulting data can be used to identify and analyze regulatory developments at the global, federal, state and local levels. This can dramatically reduce the amount of time that compliance officers or executives spend sourcing, reading and analyzing documents, while simultaneously delivering actionable insights. - Monitoring regulatory compliance
AI and its related technologies can assist with compliance through automated audits. Rather than investing in time-consuming human-powered approaches to auditing, organizations can instead leverage the power of AI to ensure that their company is being continuously monitored to ensure compliance, with notifications being provided should a lapse be identified. This kind of real-time monitoring can reduce the risk of non-compliance, help companies take preventative action or be used to identify and report non-compliant external actors. - Notification of regulatory changes
Of major value to organizations is AI’s ability to disseminate information about regulatory changes to interested stakeholders. AIs are not only able to determine what regulatory changes have occurred and when, but also who needs to be informed about their development. This information can also be automatically gathered and prepared ready to be sent out to colleagues, shareholders, and subscribers.
AI is the Way Forward
With regulatory compliance becoming more complicated and global, organizations need to take steps to ensure that they remain ahead of the curve. AI-driven regulatory tracking, reporting, and monitoring can help businesses and organizations identify, analyze and stay compliant with regulatory changes, while also freeing up human resources to focus on other areas of the business. The outcome is more efficient, effective business practices along with powerful ROI.
