In this episode, Matt Kelly and I go into the weeds on the fascinating subject relating to the intersection of compliance and technology: AI and hotlines. Matt blogged on and podcasted with Scott LaVictor, CEO of Neighborhood Watch for Corporations. His firm has been developing an app to help employees report harassment in a way that is secure and anonymous for them, but useful for compliance officers. We explore how this phone app can assist the compliance practitioner by using technology to overcome the inherent tension in an anonymous reporting system where the reporter may desire anonymity while the CCO wants and needs as much information as possible.
The hotline app example would seem to incorporate several of these concepts starting with an incredible ease of use as a phone app. But the AI features allow it to inquire directly from the reporter additional information which will be important to the compliance professional. We discussed the following example from Matt’s blog post; “an employee might call a telephone hotline and leave a recorded message, “I saw my boss bribing some guy $500 the other day!” An app could be programmed to ask:
We also discuss why if there was one technology tool for compliance to be bullish about it is AI. There is an obvious cost savings but more importantly there is the opportunity for more effective compliance risk management simultaneously with greater business efficiencies. All of this will lead to more profitability that the compliance function can point to going forward. This can include overseeing routine transactions, answering routine questions and extracting data from documents can be moved to a more efficient and useful platform.
For additional reading and listening, see
Matt’s blog post and podcast
Better Whistleblower Reporting
Tom’s blog posts
Using AI in Compliance-Introduction
Using AI in Compliance-Design Challenges