By: Emeline Denis (OECD On the Level)
Regulatory, supervisory and enforcement authorities all rely on data, internal procedures and working tools, as well as human and other resources. One of the common challenges they all face – albeit to varying degrees – relates to low data quality and time-consuming manual procedures. These challenges are magnified by the increasing volume and frequency of both structured and unstructured data that these authorities need to process. SupTech applications – including those relying on AI – can help authorities address these challenges by automating routine tasks, thus allowing them to focus on activities that require human judgment and expertise, better allocate human resources and reduce costs over time.
SupTech applications evolve along with technological innovations. AI belongs to the latest generation, enabling prescriptive analytics. While AI-based solutions potentially yield the most value for authorities by enabling forward-looking supervision, the use of AI-based applications by supervisory authorities is still at a relatively new and sometimes experimental stage. However, earlier and “less advanced” technologies can still generate sufficient information and substantial efficiency gains to be beneficial as well – especially with respect to enforcement processes.
AI-based tools in the areas of corporate governance, competition and anti-corruption are most commonly applied by supervisory and enforcement authorities to i) enhance their detection capabilities, and ii) increase the efficiency of enforcement actions. These two purposes are not mutually exclusive and should be viewed as intertwined. While the first focuses on enabling the detection of new forms of market manipulation and anti-competitive conduct that analog tools may not be able to detect, the second focuses on efficiency gains enabled by digital technologies in pre-existing enforcement processes…
