December 25, 2025
What Happens to Compliance When AI Joins the Team?
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Artificial intelligence is entering compliance programs faster than most organizations can properly govern it. Chatbots, generative AI, automated risk analysis - the promise is efficiency. The reality, as many teams are starting to discover, is far more complex.
In our recent ZUNO webinar, “What Happens to Compliance When AI Joins the Team?”, we sat down with Matt Kelly, Editor & CEO of Radical Compliance, to unpack what AI actually changes in compliance - beyond the hype.
The session is now available on YouTube and Spotify, following a live discussion on LinkedIn.
Below are the key insights every compliance leader should consider before going “all in” on AI.
One of the strongest messages from the conversation was simple but often overlooked: Adopting AI doesn’t just create value. It also creates new vulnerabilities.
Matt highlighted real-world data showing how employees are already using AI in ways that violate internal policies - often without fully understanding the risks. In one global study, nearly 50% of employees admitted they use AI without verifying its output, while many knowingly use it against company rules.
Many employees are already using AI in ways that fall outside company rules - often without malicious intent, but with very real consequences. That immediately raises a difficult question for organizations: is this a compliance problem, an IT security issue, or an HR concern?
In reality, it is all three at once.
AI doesn’t fit neatly into existing organizational silos. The moment employees start relying on AI tools to make decisions, draft content, or interpret policies, organizations are forced to rethink how responsibility is distributed. Data management and privacy risks increase as sensitive information flows into AI systems. Employee behavior becomes harder to monitor as decisions are influenced by tools that feel authoritative but aren’t always accurate. And oversight of AI-driven decision-making becomes critical, because accountability does not disappear simply because a machine was involved.
This is why AI adoption isn’t just a technology upgrade - it’s a governance challenge that touches compliance, security, and people management at the same time.
AI-powered policy chatbots are often presented as an easy win:
But Matt shared a critical second-order effect many teams don’t anticipate:
To serve AI well, policies often become longer, more detailed, and more frequently updated - the opposite of what works best for humans.
Even more concerning is the risk of “ethical autopilot”. Employees may start treating AI responses as a shield: “The AI told me this was allowed.”
That raises a difficult but unavoidable question: who is accountable when AI gives the wrong answer?
At ZUNO, we see this challenge firsthand. Alongside compliance training, we also work on the development of policy chatbots, and one lesson is consistent: a chatbot is never a “set it and forget it” solution. It requires careful policy design, clear source referencing, and ongoing monitoring to ensure answers remain accurate as regulations, interpretations, and organizational practices evolve.
If your organization is exploring policy chatbots or AI-enabled compliance tools and wants to approach this thoughtfully, contact us to develop something together - with governance, usability, and accountability built in from the start.
AI clearly has the potential to improve compliance training in meaningful ways. When used thoughtfully, it can adapt learning to individual roles, present realistic scenarios that mirror day-to-day decisions, and allow content to be updated far more quickly than traditional training formats. These capabilities can make compliance education feel more relevant, timely, and engaging for employees.
However, automation alone does not guarantee effectiveness. When AI is implemented without clear intent or human oversight, it often ends up doing the opposite of what organizations expect. Instead of improving understanding, it can scale poorly designed training, reinforce a checkbox mentality, and discourage critical thinking by giving employees the impression that “the system has it covered.” In those cases, AI doesn’t strengthen compliance - it simply accelerates existing weaknesses.
At ZUNO Games, this is exactly why we combine AI with human oversight, performance measurement, and source transparency - ensuring people understand why something matters, not just what the AI says.
One of the most practical takeaways from the webinar:
Compliance officers do not need to become data scientists.
Instead, AI literacy looks like:
AI is simply the latest technology layer. Good compliance professionals were already tech-literate - AI just raises the stakes.
For compliance leaders who feel overwhelmed by the pace of AI adoption, Matt’s advice was refreshingly pragmatic: it’s okay to admit that you’re still in the learning phase.
Rather than rushing into long-term contracts or rolling out AI tools across the organization all at once, a more sustainable approach is to start small and intentionally. Piloting AI in controlled environments allows teams to observe not only the immediate benefits, but also the second-order effects that often emerge over time. Testing ROI becomes more meaningful when it includes hidden costs such as additional oversight, policy updates, employee behavior changes, and cross-functional dependencies.
Equally important is bringing internal audit, risk, and technology stakeholders into the conversation early. AI adoption touches far more than one function, and aligning expectations upfront helps prevent surprises later. Setting realistic timelines with senior leadership - and being transparent about uncertainty - is often the difference between a thoughtful rollout and an expensive clean-up exercise.
Taking a slower, more deliberate path may feel uncomfortable in a fast-moving AI landscape, but it’s often the most responsible way to build long-term value.
AI won’t fix broken compliance programs. But it will rearrange how work gets done - shifting responsibility, accountability, and risk.
The organizations that succeed will be those that:
The full conversation with Matt Kelly is available on:
If you’d like to explore how ZUNO uses AI to make compliance training engaging, measurable, and human - feel free to get in touch.
