According to the Thomson Reuter’s Cost of Compliance Report 2023, 50% of businesses have adopted regtech solutions for compliance management.
It’s a good idea to adopt technology-enabled solutions, especially as regulations continue to evolve globally. However, human integration is equally important to strike a balance thereby
adopting a proactive and robust approach towards compliance.
The Role of Technology in Modern Compliance
Compliance management systems like AutoComply have revolutionised how organisations approach taxes and regulations. It’s great because it saves time, ensures accuracy, consistency and navigates compliance in a way that the human eye may have missed.
While it is a proactive means of enabling compliance in organisations, automation alone cannot address all compliance challenges. Technology has been able to solve problems in a broad range of industries, from health to finance, education and manufacturing. Yet, doctors, teachers, bankers and manufacturers are still in employment. Human compliance officers possess the ability to understand context and nuance in ways that automated systems cannot – yet.
The Role of the Human Element in Compliance
- Contextual Understanding – Humans can interpret grey areas and assess regulations in a way that tech solutions lack. They understand the need for and background of certain regulations and can make decisions based on factors they have knowledge of.
For example, humans understand the need to update Anti-Money Laundering regulations because emerging technologies like cryptocurrency have created new channels for potential financial crimes that traditional regulatory frameworks didn’t anticipate.
- Relationship Management – Building and maintaining relationships with regulators, stakeholders, and third parties requires human interaction and emotional intelligence, skills that cannot be replaced by automated solutions. These relationships often come in handy when navigating industry/company specific compliance challenges and implementing effective solutions.
- Strategic Decision-Making – Strategic decisions about compliance priorities, resource allocation, and risk tolerance levels cannot be made without human evaluation. Compliance officers can evaluate multiple factors like regulatory changes, organisational culture, budgets, stakeholder expectations, technological capabilities, and competitive landscape simultaneously and make informed decisions that consider both compliance requirements and business objectives.
Striking the Right Balance
Organisations should view technology and human oversight as complementary solutions towards achieving compliance.
- Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities – Define specific areas where automation takes the lead and where human oversight is essential. For example, repetitive and routine tasks such as regulation tracking and risk flagging could be delegated to tech solutions. This frees up human resources to attend to other tasks like complex regulatory interpretations and relationship management.
- Use Analytics to Inform Strategy -Technology can provide valuable data insights, but humans should interpret these findings for their specific situation and use these insights to shape compliance strategies and make informed decisions.
- Invest in Training – It is important to equip compliance officers with the skills needed to work with automated systems. This ensures they can maximise the value of technology while applying their expertise. At AutoComply, we understand the value of these trainings and ensure to effectively onboard clients to understand our solution better.
Conclusion
Regulatory Compliance Software may be the future, but it is not the replacement of human contribution. By leveraging the strengths of RegTech—efficiency, accuracy, and scalability—with the judgement, strategic thinking, and relational skills of human compliance officers, organisations can build a robust and efficient compliance framework.
AutoComply ensures that while we provide technological features such as instant notifications, risk analysis, compliance health check to enhance your compliance strategy, compliance officers are also in the loop with features like task management, team management and more. This provides the best results.