The compliance function has changed — and the tools used to support it are struggling to keep pace.
According to StarCompliance, firms operating across multiple jurisdictions face an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, one where it is no longer sufficient to simply flag exceptions and file outcomes.
StarCompliance recently explained how the growing burden of explaining compliance outcomes and why it matters.
Regulators now expect a demonstrable audit trail: not just that a decision was made, but precisely how and why, with the consistency and clarity to withstand scrutiny at any given moment. For compliance teams already stretched thin, that expectation is creating a significant operational burden.
Employee trade reviews are a prime example. These processes frequently involve intricate rule logic spanning multiple jurisdictions, requiring compliance professionals to manually untangle decision rationale under mounting pressure. The challenge is not merely identifying an issue — it is validating and explaining it, often across fragmented systems and incomplete audit trails.
Research from Thomson Reuters underscores the scale of the problem: compliance teams spend between 30 and 40 per cent of their time on manual reviews and investigations. That figure represents more than inefficiency. It speaks to a broader structural issue — the degree to which the compliance function still relies on human interpretation and retrospective analysis. Each case demands that reviewers validate inputs, interpret rule outcomes, cross-reference internal policies, and document their reasoning with precision.
As case volumes grow, so does the compounding pressure. Reviewer inconsistency introduces variability. Reconstructing decision logic after the fact increases the risk of documentation gaps. Even the most robustly designed control frameworks become difficult to defend if the reasoning behind individual decisions is not immediately clear, standardised, and repeatable.
Automation has addressed parts of this equation, but the core challenge endures. Compliance professionals remain responsible for interpreting outputs and explaining outcomes — meaning the most time-consuming element of the workflow has largely remained unchanged. Meanwhile, regulators are placing ever-greater emphasis on transparency, consistency, and practical demonstration of how controls operate in the real world.
StarCompliance brings AI-driven explainability into the workflow
StarCompliance has moved to directly address this challenge through the introduction of StarAssist. Rather than bolting on additional tooling outside existing processes, StarAssist embeds AI-powered, explainable intelligence at the precise point where decisions are made — reducing the need for manual follow-up and back-and-forth with employees while delivering clarity and context within everyday compliance workflows.
The tool transforms complex rule evaluations into real-time, contextual explanations. Instead of requiring teams to reconstruct decision logic retrospectively, StarAssist surfaces that understanding instantly, grounded in the firm’s own data, policies, and controls.
In practice, this means compliance teams benefit from clear, real-time explanations of outcomes that remove ambiguity, standardised interpretation that supports consistency across teams, and the elimination of manual backtracking to piece together decision rationale. By embedding explainability at the moment of decision, the tool also strengthens defensibility — both in internal reviews and when facing regulatory scrutiny.
Critically, StarAssist operates within defined governance boundaries. It summarises rule outcomes and surfaces the underlying rationale, but decision-making authority remains with the compliance officer. The AI does not make compliance decisions; it makes the basis for those decisions immediately legible.
This positioning aligns closely with the direction of regulatory oversight. Increasingly, supervisors are focused not merely on whether controls exist, but on how they function in practice. Firms that can demonstrate their decisions are consistent, transparent, and supported by clear rationale from the outset are far better placed to weather scrutiny.
Explainability is the next frontier for compliance programmes
The ability to explain decisions in real time is fast becoming as important as making the right decision in the first place. As regulatory expectations continue to rise and control frameworks grow more sophisticated, the firms that scale most effectively will not simply be those that automate decisions — they will be those that can explain them, consistently, clearly, and immediately.
StarAssist represents a meaningful step towards that standard, embedding understanding into every compliance workflow rather than appending it after the fact.
Read the full StarCompliance post here.
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