Regulatory change can often feel like flying a plane while building the runway, blindfolded, and the rules of aviation keep changing mid-air.

In Solutions Consulting at Corlytics, I hear this frustration daily from the likes of global banks, asset managers and insurers. But I also hear a clear, consistent aspiration: a shift from reactive compliance to intelligent, proactive and strategic regulatory change management.

Let’s call it compliance nirvana. Not just a lofty dream, but a tangible direction of travel.

What does compliance nirvana look like?

It’s a future state where:

  • Regulatory updates are automatically ingested, tagged and routed to the right teams of people
  • Obligations are mapped in real-time to internal risks, controls and policies
  • AI suggests necessary changes, while compliance professionals retain oversight
  • Every regulatory action is traceable, auditable and prioritised by actual risk exposure

We’re not talking science fiction. Leading organisations are already moving toward this model.

Take the example of a global investment bank responding to the SEC’s enhanced disclosure rules for cybersecurity incidents. Using AI-driven obligation mapping, the bank is automatically aligning new regulatory requirements to its internal controls and escalating gaps to risk owners within 48 hours. This process used to take weeks.

How is this possible?

The pillars of compliance nirvana

1. AI-driven obligation mapping and dynamic traceability
AI removes the manual burden of reading through 100+ regulatory updates each week. Obligations are extracted, categorised, and linked across the organisation’s policies, procedures, and owners. This creates a living map of traceability.

This approach is proving critical for firms responding to DORA in Europe, where obligations span ICT risk, outsourcing, and operational resilience. Rather than managing this in spreadsheets, firms can now visualise and maintain real-time traceability from EU-level regulation down to the control level.

2. AI recommendations with human oversight

Rather than replacing expertise, AI enhances it. It suggests amendments to policy documents or risk registers, but the compliance team retains full control over whether to accept, revise, or reject recommendations.

A UK-based insurer is using this model to meet Consumer Duty expectations. AI flags gaps between regulatory expectations and product governance controls, and compliance leaders validate which gaps are material. This has cut their impact assessment workload in half.

3. Regulation as quantified risk

Regulatory obligations are no longer treated as equal. By layering in enforcement analytics, firms can score regulatory topics based on real-world penalties.

A global payments provider used this approach to reprioritise workstreams after observing a spike in enforcement actions related to AML breaches across APAC. Instead of spreading resources thinly across all new obligations, they focused efforts where the financial and reputational exposure was highest.

What’s holding most firms back?

Even with strong intent, many firms struggle due to:

  • Disconnected GRC, legal, and policy management systems
  • Overstretched compliance and risk teams
  • Organisational resistance to automated decision support
  • Unstructured data from legacy workflows and manual tagging

Steps toward compliance nirvana

So how do firms begin to bridge the gap?

  • Structure your data. Tag obligations by jurisdiction, theme, and risk. This is the fuel for automation.
  • Integrate AI into existing platforms
    There’s no need to rip and replace. Layer AI into your current GRC, policy, or workflow tools.
  • Leverage enforcement intelligence
    Let enforcement data help you prioritise where to focus first.
  • Automate the low-value tasks
    Free up experts to spend time on strategic decisions, not admin.
  • Scale in phases
    Start with a jurisdiction (for example, EU’s DORA or Hong Kong’s virtual asset rules), a process (like impact assessments), or a team. Then expand.

    Nirvana isn’t a destination. It’s a direction.

    Every step you take toward automation, traceability, and intelligent prioritisation brings you closer to the future state of regulatory change. This is already happening in leading firms. The only question is: are you ready to take the next step?

    What’s your vision for compliance nirvana?

    I’ve shared what I’m seeing across the industry. Now I’d love to hear from you:

    • What’s the one thing you wish your regulatory change process could do better?
    • Are you using AI to align obligations to controls or policies?
    • What’s the biggest blocker keeping your team reactive instead of proactive?

    Rory McGrath, Global Head of Solutions Consulting