Financial institutions are adopting artificial intelligence faster than many compliance teams can establish the controls needed to oversee it. That gap is raising new questions about AI-powered compliance and regulatory accountability.
As employee communications spread across messaging platforms, collaboration tools and AI-powered applications, organizations face mounting pressure to identify potential misconduct without overwhelming investigators or compromising regulatory accountability. The challenge is measurable. According to Smarsh’s “2026 Enterprise AI Trends Study,” 55% of enterprises are actively deploying AI, but only 26% say their governance frameworks are keeping pace. Just 30% report comprehensive capabilities to detect and manage unauthorized AI use.
Those gaps helped frame discussions at Smarsh EDGE 2026, recently hosted at the Rainbow Room in New York City. TheCUBE’s post-event coverage, airing Oct. 15, will feature executive perspectives on how financial institutions are modernizing communications compliance, applying AI to risk detection and establishing governance across increasingly connected enterprise systems. (* Disclosure below.)
Communications intelligence expands beyond regulatory compliance
During a recent interview with theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, Smarsh Chief Executive Officer Kim Crawford Goodman discussed how the proliferation of communications channels is complicating oversight for regulated organizations. As AI-powered applications and autonomous agents generate new forms of enterprise communications, financial institutions must capture and preserve increasingly complex data while maintaining the visibility needed to detect potential misconduct.
“Whenever these things are happening, it must be captured,” she said. “It must be captured in rich and good format, and it must be available for the intelligent capabilities of people like Smarsh to crawl. And now we’re looking not just for risks and bad things, we’re also looking for opportunity.”
That distinction reflects a shift in how enterprises are approaching communications data. Rather than treating archived interactions primarily as regulatory records, organizations are beginning to consider how the same information can support investigations, operational decisions and broader business intelligence.
AI agents could make communications data more accessible and useful across enterprise workflows, according to Goodman. These tools could enable investigators to trace relationships across communications, identify relevant context and better understand how information moves between individuals. Such capabilities could reduce the manual effort involved in investigations while helping organizations identify patterns that traditional monitoring systems might overlook.
The broader opportunity lies in connecting historically fragmented communications data with AI-powered tools that can interpret its context. For regulated businesses, the challenge will be extending those capabilities beyond compliance without sacrificing data integrity, security or accountability.
AI-powered compliance shifts toward proactive risk management
Traditional communications compliance has centered on capturing messages, preserving records and investigating potential violations. The proliferation of AI-generated communications and autonomous agents is increasing the complexity of that process, particularly when organizations rely on disconnected surveillance and archiving systems.
AI-powered surveillance could help compliance teams focus on meaningful risks rather than reviewing large volumes of alerts. During her conversation with theCUBE, Goodman said Smarsh’s AI technologies can reduce false positives by 70% to 80%, potentially allowing investigators to devote more resources to genuine compliance concerns.
The company has also been extending its platform to support agent-based workflows. In September, Smarsh introduced a Model Context Protocol server, AskSmarsh AI and additional agentic capabilities, designed to connect communications intelligence with enterprise applications while maintaining governance controls.
“What we see at Smarsh is people will develop and utilize all kinds of agents from different sources, and they will do that on the back of different types of models,” Goodman said during the interview.
That approach reflects growing interest in connecting specialized AI models and agents across business systems while maintaining access controls and trustworthy records. For financial institutions, the challenge is ensuring that automated workflows remain transparent, auditable and consistent with regulatory obligations.
TheCUBE’s Smarsh EDGE coverage will address these operational and governance questions, including how AI could accelerate investigations, reduce unnecessary alerts and transform enterprise communications into actionable intelligence.
TheCUBE event livestream
Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of Smarsh EDGE on Oct. 15. Plus, you can access theCUBE’s exclusive content on demand after the event.
How to watch theCUBE interviews
We offer various ways for you to watch theCUBE’s coverage of Smarsh EDGE, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.
TheCUBE podcasts
SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech, from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture, with exclusive context and analysis.
SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Guests
TheCUBE’s coverage of Smarsh EDGE will feature conversations with financial services and technology executives about AI-powered communications compliance, regulatory oversight and the shift toward proactive risk management.
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Smarsh EDGE. Smarsh, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, and other sponsors do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)