The 2023 ECCP provided clear-cut criteria regarding effective compliance investigations. Unfortunately, many compliance teams fail to promptly substantiate most of the reports they investigate, partly due to their inability to quickly and easily find the evidence they need, especially about harassment and misconduct cases. He stated, “This doesn’t just demonstrate a fundamental lack of effectiveness from the DOJ’s perspective, but a long-term organizational risk that goes well beyond any individual allegation of misconduct.” The reason is not simply legal but also operational. If substantive allegations are indeed violations, they could continue, exacerbating the problem(s) and lengthening the time of legal liability.
All of this is particularly significant in light of the industry research that shows many compliance investigations today are unsubstantiated and can take over 40 days from start to finish. The ability of AI to find and analyze data from the web and social media in this automated fashion will be able to overcome some of those challenges in terms of length of time and overall scope of the investigation. Finally, always remember data preservation. The regulators always want to know if you have the documents and data tied down. This allows a company to have confidence in its papers and, in turn, can make such representations to regulators and prosecutors that the documents are secure. In other words, Document, Document, and Document.
Three key takeaways:
- AI is an appropriate tool for supplementing investigations.
- AI can look at large bodies of social media data.
- AI can help you decrease your investigation length.
For more information, check out The Compliance Handbook, 4th edition, here.
