Embracing Microsoft Copilot in Financial Services: How Smarsh Eliminates Compliance Barriers
Is your institution facing an impossible choice between innovation and regulatory risk?
Financial institutions are at a critical crossroads. While 75% of financial services firms are projected to adopt generative AI by 2026 (Gartner Research), many compliance and technology leaders find themselves in a difficult position: Should they embrace Microsoft Copilot's transformative capabilities or protect the organization from regulatory scrutiny?
Why it matters
The stakes couldn't be higher. Without proper compliance safeguards, AI-generated conversations create significant blind spots in your regulatory framework — potentially leading to:
- Unmonitored communications that violate recordkeeping requirements
- Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive client information
- Missing audit trails for regulatory examination
- Potential violations carrying severe financial penalties
Breaking the compliance deadlock
Key regulatory agencies are already stating that existing regulations should be applied to generative AI depending on the use of the AI technology. At Smarsh, we've developed a breakthrough solution leveraging Microsoft Copilot Activity Export APIs (in pre-release beta testing and pending General Availability release by Microsoft, expected by April 8, 2025) that eliminates this dilemma.
Our advanced compliance framework captures and archives AI-driven conversations, allowing your institution to:
- Accelerate productivity with Microsoft Copilot while maintaining compliance and AI governance requirements
- Deploy AI assistance for use across your organization with confidence
- Stay ahead of evolving regulatory expectations under FINRA, SEC, FCA, ESMA guidelines, and the EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)
The compliance imperative for AI-powered communications
Microsoft Copilot delivers robust gains in efficiency by producing AI-generated responses that summarize conversations and automate workflows in Teams chats. However, financial institutions that deploy Microsoft Copilot without comprehensive compliance controls may face risks such as:
- Regulatory penalties for recordkeeping violations
- Potential data breaches involving sensitive information
- Critical gaps in audit trails during regulatory examinations
- Inability to supervise AI-generated communications
- Complete conversation capture: Records all Microsoft Copilot-generated rich text content and rendered images (shared by the user in their prompts and/or by Copilot in its generated responses)
- Contextual preservation: Maintains threaded conversations that preserve the full interaction context
- AI risk detection: Automatically identifies and flags potential compliance concerns when used with our Enterprise Conduct surveillance solution
- Tamper-proof archiving: Secures all communications in an immutable environment when archiving to a WORM-storage-compliant compliance archive
- Examination-ready access: Makes all AI-generated content immediately available for compliance audits
Smarsh offers a complete compliance solution
Our integration with the Microsoft Copilot Beta API provides comprehensive protection that goes beyond basic capture:
Leading the way in AI compliance
Smarsh continues to set the standard for generative AI compliance solutions in financial services. Following our successful integration of the OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise Compliance API, we’re also extending our compliance framework to Microsoft Copilot, ensuring that financial institutions worldwide can confidently embrace AI innovation while maintaining regulatory compliance.
If you want to learn more about how Smarsh is integrating AI with compliance, check out the article: Generative AI is Here to Stay: Why Firms Must Prioritize Governance for Sustainable Success.
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