How APIs Unlock AI and Data Innovation

06/12/2025by Sonya Duffin

Let’s be real: Everyone’s talking about generative AI, but few talk about why AI projects get stuck. Generative AI’s promise of transformation is tempered by a stark reality: even the most advanced models can’t overcome poor data quality or vague business goals. For financial institutions, this risk is magnified by regulatory complexity, outdated systems and the high stakes of financial decision-making.

Why it matters

Generative AI’s promise hinges on high-quality, accessible data — and that’s where most projects fail. Smarsh APIs bridge the gap between siloed data archives and real-time AI innovation, helping financial institutions realize the full value of their data, automate with confidence, and drive smarter, faster outcomes at scale.

Don’t just take my word for it. Gartner recently dropped a bombshell: “30% of generative AI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept due to poor data quality and unclear business value.” Yikes. That’s a stark warning — but also a call to act strategically, starting with the data you already have.

Why do so many AI projects fail?

Three main reasons stand out:

Garbage in, garbage out
Generative AI needs clean, quality, context-rich data. Inconsistent formats, siloed systems, and “dark data” make accuracy a challenge.

Tech for tech’s sake
AI is often implemented without a clear goal, measurable outcome, or worse, without a business problem to address, such as integrated discovery, detecting insider trading, or enhancing fraud detection.

Integration headaches
Many vendors promise the world, but when hit with real-world data volumes, siloed data solutions and integration costs, things fall apart.

The good news: You’re already halfway there

You are the solution to the “garbage in, garbage out” problem. If you’re in financial services, thanks to your compliance and governance efforts, you’ve already captured and archived your communications data. You’ve got a treasure trove of clean, quality data just waiting to be put to work. With the right approach, that data can power AI-driven innovation, risk mitigation, and new business opportunities across your organization. While that’s great news, AI still requires an investment. What is the next step in your AI implementation journey?

The bridge between data silos and AI adoption

Arm your organization with APIs and an intelligent data platform you can trust. The right data platforms are vital as they will centralize all your data, from all your disparate sources. From there, APIs are a game-changer when it comes to data access and AI success.

Why do you need robust APIs?

Think of APIs as the ultimate data connectors — like a waiter in a restaurant who takes your order, delivers it to the kitchen, then brings your meal back to you. They let all your systems talk to each other, breaking down those pesky silos that slow your workflow.

APIs enable seamless data flow. APIs allow data to move out of your archive and into other systems. This could be for analysis and insights or to automate and relieve your teams of manual data export.

APIs provide real-time data access, connecting core banking systems, payment gateways, and third-party platforms (e.g., credit bureaus) to feed AI models with live data. They also enable you to control costs. Modular API architectures allow incremental, deterministic scaling. Additionally, API gateways help to boost compliance by enforcing data access policies and audit trails, key for meeting regulatory requirements.

Smarsh has you covered with new platform innovation and APIs

Here is where things get interesting. Last week, Smarsh unveiled significant advancements to its platform and the latest generation of APIs to help you confidently meet evolving compliance demands and innovation needs in this new era of generative AI.

Ready to get rid of the manual processes that plague your team’s productivity? Our new collection of APIs provides real-time access, automates workflows and saves time and money. They are engineered to meet the specific data access and custom integration needs of the enterprise. Our APIs not only help to automate workflows and data access programmatically, they do it on any scale you require. Whether you are looking to use data for downstream applications, gain unparalleled customization, observability, or secure data access, we have you covered.

Tech for tech’s sake and integration challenges? Not with Smarsh.

At Smarsh, our advanced and secure API capabilities seamlessly connect and synchronize data across all your workflows. We help you link up to your Large Language Models (LLMs) or AI data needs. Our flexible solutions give you the power to tackle your specific business challenges head-on.

Our APIs also help you move away from manual handoffs and error-prone data processes. For instance, in discovery, our APIs help you manage legal holds across your entire organization and integrate them into your legal workstreams — whether that’s internally, with outside counsel, or with other third-party tools. This adds up to ultimate control, time and money savings, and risk reduction.

What’s new from our 3rd generation of APIs?

Secure API framework

Designed to be a security-first entry point for your data. Armed with a secure methodology for accessing data, the ability to manage concurrent API access at scale, and an architecture that the functional APIs “plug into.”

Why it matters: Protects sensitive financial data and ensures safe integration with internal systems, third-party applications or AI models.

Monitoring and observability

Provides observability and granular activity tracking. Think about it as the ability to monitor and observe your API performance and usage.

Why it matters: Helps compliance teams monitor usage trends, detect anomalies, and streamline governance.

Throttling controls

Think of this as the ultimate guardrails and controls. Giving you the control you need to make sure that you are not overrunning the system with an additional layer of security.

Why it matters: Ensures reliability, cost control, and consistent performance under real-world conditions.

Extensibility

Using AWS best practices, this open API framework extends functionality to provide customers and partners open access to innovate, apply their models, or connect third-party applications.

Why it matters: Future-proofs your investment and enables AI and workflow innovation on your terms.

Realize unprecedented efficiency with Smarsh API capabilities

Smarsh continues to innovate with its open platform and API architecture that allows firms to effortlessly connect and synchronize data across all their workflows, driving efficiency gains, enabling tailored customization, and reducing costly manual data processes.

So, how will you innovate?

Want to learn more about our innovative data platform and APIs? If you're ready to innovate, we're ready to help. Let’s talk. Connect with a Smarsh expert today!

Let's build the future together.

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Sonya Duffin

Data Expert at Smarsh

Sonya is a seasoned marketing leader with a strong background in data governance and protection. She enjoys sharing her expertise through thought leadership and educational content, covering data security, resilience and management.

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