AI and compliance: “The productivity case is clear”

Earlier this month, the International Compliance Association (ICA) launched a training course with compliance technology firm Zango AI, in an effort to close the AI gap for compliance teams. Joe Pickard hears from ICA MD Rob Phillipson to find out more

The Accountant: What are the main AI-related concerns for the ICA currently?

Rob Phillipson: AI adoption in financial services is moving faster than the workforce’s ability to govern it responsibly. 85% of financial institutions are already using or planning to use AI, yet 55% of employees have never received any official training on AI tools.

For the ICA, the core concern is that the very people responsible for overseeing AI – compliance, risk and legal teams – are underequipped do so. Without governance literacy, ethical frameworks or the ability to interrogate AI decisions, firms cannot effectively supervise these systems, challenge them when things go wrong, or explain their AI use to regulators. The ICA’s role is to close that gap before it becomes a systemic risk.

TA: How wide is the AI skills gap for AI professionals, what are the major shortfalls?

RP: The Financial Services Skills Commission reports a 35% gap between demand for and availability of AI skills. In compliance specifically, four shortfalls stand out.

First, practical use – many staff don’t know how to use AI tools confidently or safely, including how to write effective prompts, validate outputs or reduce hallucinations. Second, governance – employees are often unsure how to assess whether a model is high risk or low risk, or how to demonstrate alignment with internal policies.

Third, ethics – fairness, bias mitigation and explainability remain underdeveloped skills, with limited understanding of when human review is required. Fourth, critical interpretation – 58% of workers have relied on an AI output without checking its accuracy, according to Zango, leading to over-reliance and limited challenge when systems behave unexpectedly.

TA: How can the training keep up with developments in AI?

RP: The only way to keep pace is to ground training in real-world deployment rather than theory. AI is moving too quickly for curricula built on hypothetical scenarios to stay current. Zango’s contribution to the partnership draws directly on practical experience of deploying AI agents across financial institutions – meaning the training reflects how AI is actually being used and where risks are emerging right now.

The ICA’s role is to ensure that content is continuously updated, credibly accredited and delivered rapidly through its global network. Effective training needs to be built around real workflows, not theoretical deep dives, and delivered cross-functionally rather than in silos.

TA: What decisions led to the partnership with Zango AI?

RP: The partnership formalises something already proven in practice. Zango has been running free, practical one-hour workshops with the ICA – covering topics such as how to prompt like an AI engineer for compliance and how to build a regulatory horizon scanning agent – with the most recent session drawing more than 400 attendees from 42 countries.

That reach validated both the demand and the ICA’s confidence in Zango as the right partner. Formalising the relationship adds ICA-recognised accreditation and structured curriculum to what was already working.

TA: What is the general view on AI of ICA members? Is it seen as a positive or negative disruptor?

RP: Broadly positive, but with real anxiety about governance. Members recognise that AI use cases now extend across fraud detection, transaction monitoring, onboarding, credit decisions, customer service, risk scoring and regulatory compliance – the productivity case is clear.

The concern is not the technology itself but the pace of change and need for accuracy and integrity when operating in regulated environments. More specifically, how compliance professionals can ensure that they have the skills to evaluate the systems they are being asked to sign off on.

The dominant sentiment among ICA members is not scepticism but a well-founded desire for practical guidance. That is the gap this partnership is designed to fill.