How AI Adoption Reshapes Compliance

According to an article by White & Case, corporate compliance is undergoing a significant transformation driven by digitalization and, more specifically, AI adoption. No longer a niche tool, AI is rapidly entering mainstream use in compliance and investigations, though adoption rates vary widely by organization size and structure. The firm’s findings show that 36 percent of respondents use AI for both compliance and investigations, while 26 percent deploy it for compliance alone. Public companies and large, revenue-generating organizations report markedly higher adoption rates, reflecting greater resources, data demands, and regulatory expectations.

The study notes that most organizations have only recently adopted AI, spurred by pandemic-driven digitalization and the rapid accessibility of generative AI tools. Early adopters cite efficiency gains as their primary motivation, with 73% pointing to time savings and 71% to cost reductions. Typical applications include summarizing documents and reviewing materials during investigations, areas where natural language processing and large language models demonstrate particular utility. While adoption brings benefits, challenges remain. Respondents express concerns over data protection (64%), inaccuracy (57%), and potential overreliance, particularly in public companies.

Governance structures are beginning to catch up. Nearly two-thirds of respondents have policies governing employee use of AI, although gaps persist across smaller and privately held entities. Integration into enterprise risk management frameworks is also uneven but growing, with 60 percent of organizations incorporating AI risks. Notably, most of these organizations also deploy controls to monitor trustworthiness and compliance.

For compliance teams, AI adoption is accelerating, but effective governance and cross-functional coordination remain essential to strike a balance between innovation and regulatory and operational risk.