Global Relay released a report showing that generative artificial intelligence (genAI) is a leading area of compliance risk for firms, with a 400% year-on-year (yoy) increase in AI data capture. Global Relay is a provider of integrated digital communications and recordkeeping
The survey examines how a cross section of 12,000 compliance, surveillance, and risk leaders in financial services are responding to increasing scrutiny around recordkeeping and compliance communications. It examines which communication channels are being captured by 12,000 firms, with a view to meet recordkeeping and surveillance expectations.
Beyond AI, the number of organizations capturing WhatsApp data continues to grow in line with continued regulatory enforcement, with a 258% increase yoy across surveyed respondents, and 4.3% of all accounts now being monitored compared to just 1.2% in 2023.
GenAI dominates compliant communications risk
Financial services are experiencing a major uptick in AI use cases, from allowing individuals to streamline workflows, to drafting communications and even creating and amending algorithms. Capture and archiving of conversations, attachments and exchanges had with GenAI, specifically ChatGPT, have increased 4x over the last year.
“In order to harness reward and mitigate risk, we will likely see an increase in organizations seeking to capture the interactions that employees are having with genAI,” said Rob Mason, director of Regulatory Intelligence at Global Relay, in a statement. “This will allow compliance experts to maintain clear audit trails, understand how the technology is being used, and monitor for misconduct as they prepare for future AI-centric regulation down the road.”
Social media concern on the rise
In the US, the number of firms capturing social media channels and website data has seen a significant spike amounting to an 87% increase yoy, with 38% of financial organizations capturing and preserving business communications from at least one social media channel. In the US, 35% of firms are capturing social media data, while only 9% of UK firms are currently opting for social media capture.
This is likely due to differences in definitive crackdowns by regulators in the US versus the UK, where regulators have been less direct compared to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) aggressively enforced rules around financial promotions, including those made on social media, by virtue of the Marketing Rule which went into effect in 2021.
In particular, Instagram and YouTube have emerged as key communications channels with a growing compliance risk footprint, with a focus on personal profiles. Additionally, firms noted investment in the capture and retention of Zoom calls, underscoring ongoing modernization of recordkeeping efforts in line with post-pandemic changes. Notably, the data shows that communications made through X (formerly known as Twitter) have fallen in favor, dropping by 8% YOY due to the diminished reputation of the site, a decrease in marketing spend across the app, and an increase in API fees.
“Communications compliance continues to be front and center for financial institutions across the board,” Mason said in a statement. “In the wake of a significant number of fines by regulators, and with new risk areas such as genAI and social media increasingly expanding into the day-to-day operations for businesses of all shapes and sizes, our goal is to provide comprehensive technology to meet our clients’ changing needs to address not only their current challenges but also safeguard against future risk.”
Regions split on traditional communications channel popularity
Notably, traditional channels such as Microsoft Teams, emails and Instant Bloomberg remain popular in the UK, which has experienced lower volumes of recordkeeping and marketing fines by regulators. Microsoft Teams saw the most significant spike year-on-year, up 13% in 2024, with the Global Relay App trailing closely behind (+12% yoy) and Refinitiv in third place (+11% yoy).
Conventional business communications channels including email, Instant Bloomberg and Microsoft Teams remain in the top five most captured channels, showing that firms continue to prioritize the capture and preservation of traditional communication channels amid changing sentiment around potential for increased enforcement across AI and social media.