Despite widespread awareness and experimentation, artificial intelligence adoption in financial services compliance and operations remains shallow and largely informal, according to a new survey released by ACA Group (ACA), the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services. The survey of compliance and operations professionals finds that while the vast majority of firms are engaging with AI in some capacity, meaningful, embedded deployment across business functions remains the exception rather than the rule.
The survey of over 200 U.S.-based firms, conducted in conjunction with the GAIM Ops conference in late April 2026, offers one of the most detailed looks to date at where AI is taking hold across the compliance and operations functions of investment management and financial services firms. This survey examined usage at the sub-business-function level, covering 20 discrete compliance and operations functions to reveal where AI is genuinely embedded versus where it exists only in name.
According to the survey, 84% of respondents report using AI across their organizations. When broken down by specific business function, only one in ten of the 20 compliance and operations sub-functions surveyed reported active AI use. In compliance, the average across all functions was less than 20%. In operations, the figure dropped to approximately 5%.
“Financial services firms are clearly paying attention to AI, but there is a significant gap between awareness and integration,” said Jody Kochansky, Head of Product and Engineering, ACA Group. “The data tells us that most firms are still in the experimentation phase, relying on desktop tools that sit outside of their core workflows. The real opportunity – and the real challenge – is moving from informal use to embedded, governed, auditable deployment.”
The survey also found:
- Desktop AI dominates. The majority of current AI use is desktop-based tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Claude used outside of integrated workflows. Fewer than 5% of respondents qualify as what the survey terms “skilled practitioners” or “platform operators,” meaning firms using internally built or third-party AI embedded in their operations.
- Compliance program administration leads adoption. Within compliance, the most active area of AI use is compliance program administration, followed by electronic communications surveillance and marketing review. Notably, employee trading monitoring and code of ethics ranked low on both current use and forward-looking wish lists, despite heightened regulatory attention to those areas.
- Operations is the untapped frontier. Operations functions reported even lower current AI adoption than compliance, with quality control on market data, cash reconciliation, and position reconciliation representing the highest use cases. Many operations professionals attributed the limited AI uptake to the heavily structured nature of operations data, a rationale that may give way to broader deployment as AI capabilities mature.
- Compliance testing and monitoring top the wish list. When asked where they most want to deploy AI over the next 12 months, respondents ranked compliance testing and monitoring first, followed by electronic communications surveillance and marketing and advertising review.
- Growth projections may already be conservative. Respondents projected function-specific compliance AI use would grow from 18% to 33% over the next 12 months, and operations from approximately 5% to 13%. Given the rapid acceleration observed since the survey was fielded in March, actual adoption is likely to significantly outpace these projections.
The survey findings also point to a broader tension in the market: firms recognize the potential of AI but face pressure to proceed carefully in highly regulated environments. Regulatory scrutiny, the risk of AI-generated errors, data governance gaps, and the need to maintain clear audit trails are among the factors driving caution.
“We are entering the age of agentic AI, which represents a fundamental shift in how AI will operate within financial services organizations,” said Josh Broaded, Head of AI, Advisory Services, ACA Group. “As AI begins to take autonomous action within workflows, the governance question becomes even more critical. Firms should think about AI agents the same way they think about new employees: with defined permissions, clear scope, and oversight built in from the start.”
The full report is available here. A replay of the May 20, 2026 webcast, “State of AI in Compliance and Operations: The Shift Toward Agentic AI,” is available here.
About ACA
ACA is the leading governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) advisor in financial services. For over 20 years, ACA has empowered clients to launch, grow, and protect their businesses. Its global team of 1,400 professionals includes former regulators and industry practitioners. ACA’s innovative approach integrates advisory, managed services, distribution solutions, and analytics with its ComplianceAlpha® technology platform. For more information, visit www.acaglobal.com.
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