Subject areaRules, risk and compliance
Also known asregulatory compliance
Compliance is meeting the rules a company must follow, from personal data protection to trade secrets, together with the internal policies, controls and responsibilities that make it happen.
The word covers both the outcome, being within the rules, and the company function that looks after it.
With artificial intelligence, compliance has become an everyday matter: pasting a confidential text into an outside service is enough to leak information and breach a rule, which is the risk of shadow AI. In the European Union the main references are the General Data Protection Regulation and the AI Act. Stopping at formal box-ticking, however, leaves the company always one rule behind; this is why the sturdier approach is governance, which designs the constraints upfront and turns compliance into a way of working.
An example
A pharmaceutical company that wants to use an AI assistant on its research documents first checks where the data go, who can read them and which contract governs them; only after compliance signs off does the tool reach the departments.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
Spotted an inaccuracy or something that needs updating? Write to info@enricogiubertoni.com and help make this glossary a better place.
What are your business challenges?
Tell us about your priorities and the objectives you want to reach.
You will receive a free, targeted answer within one working day.