Vixio has published new research exposing a stark divide between boardroom enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and the caution shown by the compliance professionals expected to use it.
The report, titled The State of AI Trust in Regulatory Compliance 2026, draws on qualitative interviews with compliance, legal and risk executives working across payment providers, retail banks and gambling operators.
It finds that although 53% of compliance teams already use AI for routine regulatory change tasks, such as monitoring updates, assessing their impact and rolling out changes, most professionals sharply distinguish between using the technology for preliminary research and trusting it with decisions that must hold up under audit.
That caution runs deep. According to the findings, 65% of compliance leaders say they distrust generic AI tools when it comes to regulatory decision-making, wary of applying consumer-grade technology to high-stakes judgement calls.
The single biggest source of that unease is hallucination, cited by 59% of respondents, who warned that AI systems can present incorrect regulatory interpretations with unwarranted confidence, creating serious exposure at audit.
As a safeguard, 56% of compliance teams now insist on a mandatory human checkpoint before acting on any AI output, treating the technology strictly as a research aid rather than a decision-maker, with final interpretation left to experienced professionals. The report also sets out what it calls the four foundations required before AI can be trusted with genuine compliance work: verified data, direct sourcing, human review and a clear audit trail of activity.
Vixio positions itself as a specialist in helping regulated businesses track and act on regulatory change, and the report reflects the company’s attempt to translate its clients’ hesitations into a roadmap for how AI should be deployed responsibly in compliance functions.
Vixio executive chair and CEO Christian Erlandson said, “This report makes one thing clear: in regulated industries, speed without trust is a risk no company can afford. Compliance leaders shouldn’t have to choose between AI efficiency and defensible accuracy. This research names the trust gap at the heart of the market, and at Vixio we’re evolving our platform in lockstep with our clients to turn regulatory ambiguity into trust, so compliance can say yes with confidence.”
For those tracking how AI is reshaping regulatory and compliance functions, the message is clear: adoption is accelerating, but trust must be engineered in, not assumed.
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