Answering policy questions from a firm's own documents

A financial services firm of about 400 people held its policy knowledge in two places: the documents themselves, and the heads of its partners. Employees could usually find the policy. What they could not reliably do was get a clear answer out of it at the moment they needed one, so they asked a partner instead.

• Financial institutions carry complex internal policies, regulations that keep moving, and a steady flow of questions from staff across departments.
• Teams spend their time searching for answers, interpreting documents, and escalating questions. That slows decisions down and leaves room for error.

An AI compliance assistant that lets staff ask questions in their own words, such as "What's the threshold for transaction monitoring in Alberta?" or "Who approves exceptions to onboarding limits?"

The assistant answers from the firm's own documentation, policies, and regulatory guidance. Every response carries a citation back to the passage it came from, so a reviewer can check it.

We built it in the firm's own environment, on their accounts. The system, the prompts and the configuration are theirs, and they keep running whether or not they keep working with us.

• Answers repeat policy questions from the current documents rather than an older copy
• Cites the source passage on every answer, so it can be checked before it is acted on
• Returns the same answer to the same question, whichever team asks it
• Keeps a record of what was asked and what was answered
• Runs in Slack, MS Teams, or the browser, wherever the question comes up
• Serves the same document set to ops, risk, legal, and customer support

Partners stopped being interrupted for policy questions.

Routine policy retrieval moved away from senior staff and closer to the person asking it. Partners kept their time for the work that needs their judgment.