Transcription services, copilots, and in-conversation prompts have already profoundly impacted UC platforms.
However, adoption has been hindered by compliance challenges that come with implementing AI in communication solutions.
Financial firms face particular challenges, as they must balance leveraging AI’s capabilities while adhering to strict regulatory requirements.
“I think some of the most difficult challenges that people are facing right now are ensuring that their data is protected and that these AI models are trained to do their actual job,” Luke Church, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Smarsh, said.
As a result of these challenges, providers like Smarsh are developing specialized AI tools that address sector-specific needs, offering financial services firms a pathway to harness AI while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Unlocking Efficiency and Risk Management with AI
For financial institutions, regulations mandate that communications must be monitored for compliance, with severe consequences for non-compliance.
Financial firms handle sensitive customer information that must be protected against breaches or misuse. With AI, the risks include models being trained on sensitive data.
When using AI in your UC solution, ensuring the information it learns from is not customer data becomes a critical concern.
“Financial firms want to ensure that their data is safe and secure. They ask whether sensitive information is being sent to a third-party LLM processor,” Church said.
Another significant challenge is ensuring AI systems can accurately interpret the nuanced context of communications—crucial for identifying potential misconduct or regulatory breaches.
Yet companies that can apply AI within regulatory boundaries stand to gain substantial benefits.
“There are several benefits for customers. You reduce many mundane and repetitive tasks associated with manual review processes, especially when it comes to surveilling communications data,” Church said.
Smarsh’s AI Approach: Building on a Foundation of Expertise
Currently, many newer market entrants lack the specialized knowledge and data resources necessary to build AI models that effectively identify behavioral risks across communication data.
Smarsh, however, has been fine-tuning its AI solutions for the better part of the last decade.
“It’s purpose-built for financial services,” Church emphasized. “The foundation of how these are created is with the fact in mind that we are catering to these financial service firms.”
Smarsh’s capabilities were further enhanced in 2020 when they acquired Digital Reasoning.
“They were a leader in AI and ML within the compliance space for several years,” Church explained.
This acquisition provided Smarsh with advanced AI capabilities already tested and refined through work with top-tier financial institutions.
Alongside its capabilities, one of Smarsh’s distinguishing features is making advanced technology accessible to organizations of all sizes.
Its approach to AI development therefore takes great care to emphasize proper training data and model development.
“We have worked with the largest financial institutions in the world to fine-tune models for financial risks and compliance challenges,” Church noted.
This vertical specialization allows its solutions to address financial firms’ unique compliance challenges more effectively than general-purpose AI tools.
Smarsh’s AI portfolio includes both assistive and autonomous technologies. The recently announced Smarsh AI Assistant helps compliance reviewers identify potential issues more efficiently.
“When a reviewer is looking at a message, they have access to an always-available AI Assistant. They can activate the AI directly within the UI to identify and highlight key areas of risk, a gamechanger for our SMB customers using Professional Archive,” Church explained.
This efficiency gain allows compliance teams to focus on higher-value activities, reducing organizational risk and streamlining the review process.
With democratization of AI in mind, this solution is intuitive and designed with accessibility in mind.
“It automatically integrates with the UI, so it’s very seamless to use. Organizations will have access to scalable technology without exceeding their bottom line,” Church explained.
With Smarsh’s Intelligent Agent, customers can emulate the expertise of an L1 digital analyst. Users can significantly reduce false positives while uncovering more risks.
“So we’re going to be emulating the expertise of a level one digital analyst with the Intelligent Agent,” Church explained.
Its ability to analyze communication context automatically rather than just flagging keywords marks a significant advancement in compliance technology.
“We’re seeing that false positives remain a significant issue for customers, leaving more room to overlook critical risks at a contextual level,” Church explained.
Traditional systems often generate excessive false positives by identifying problematic terms without understanding context—creating extra work for compliance teams.
Smarsh’s contextual understanding enables more accurate risk detection and fewer false positives compared to traditional lexicon-based approaches.
“When it comes to the actual behavioral classification of the context of messages, the Intelligent Agent reduces false positives significantly while broadening the scope of compliance programs to zero in on more risks,” Church explained.
Expanding Compliant Applications of AI
As financial institutions navigate an increasingly complex regulatory landscape, the strategic implementation of AI represents not just an opportunity but a competitive necessity.
Smarsh’s decade-long investment in purpose-built AI solutions demonstrates that compliance and innovation need not be opposing forces.
“We have an exceptionally skilled regulatory team here at Smarsh—experts who stay very close to these regulations—and they help inform our product team and our engineering team,” Church explained.
By developing specialized tools like the AI Assistant and Intelligent Agent, Smarsh has created a blueprint for how financial firms of all sizes can harness advanced technology while maintaining regulatory integrity.
As the financial world continues to evolve, one thing remains clear: the intersection of AI and compliance is where the industry’s most significant opportunities await.
For those ready to seize those opportunities, the AI compliance partner Smarsh is on standby.
