Regulatory Monitoring

The regulatory environment, whether in Brazil, Latin America, or any other part of the world, is marked by a high volume of information distributed across multiple sources. For regulatory affairs teams, this means daily reading of hundreds of documents, from official gazettes and internal reports to emails, spreadsheets, etc. 

In this context, regulatory affairs professionals must accurately identify risks and even opportunities, the failure of which could result in millions in losses, or even completely paralyze operations. Therefore, the central goal of regulatory areas is to accurately identify what matters, prioritize risks, and act with agility.

However, in recent years, the volume of new regulations has significantly increased. This rise is driven by political, social, and environmental pressures, alongside the faster circulation of information enabled by the internet and the reduced costs of document production via artificial intelligence.

Despite this, the headcount in regulatory teams has not kept pace. Consequently, these areas are becoming increasingly vulnerable to errors, while professionals face constant pressure that can lead to burnout.

The solution to the problem created by technology is not simply increasing the workforce or working hours. We need to deploy technology to rebalance the scales once more.

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1. Why the manual model is no longer enough

A solid monitoring process involves maintaining the following workflows:

  • Comprehensive reading of all documents that pass the relevance filter. 
  • Standardized analysis of documents via robust checklists maintained by professionals fluent in the organization's business structure. 
  • Swift and concise communication of new information to all parties who need to be informed. 
  • Continuous creation and maintenance of relevance filters based on updates to public agency publishing structures and the organization's goals.

When the volume of information was lower, slower, and regulations were simpler, a team of up to 20 people—depending on the organization—could maintain a balanced pace.

Nowadays, however, maintaining total oversight of all documents is increasingly difficult. It is common to find teams with thousands of unread emails accumulating in a short period as the most explicit symptom. Furthermore, training new professionals to conduct standardized reading and analysis can take months. Thus, in high-turnover scenarios, the risk of losing critical information during transitions rises significantly. 

Summarizing information for rapid communication has also become more challenging. The reader requires ever-greater synthesis to identify relevance in just a few minutes, ensuring effective communication.  

Moreover, tracking government structures and organizational objectives, and transforming this data into relevance criteria, is not a simple task and requires deep fluency.

Read our article Automated monitoring of environmental licenses by financial institutions.

2. The automation of regulatory processes is urgent

In summary, the manual model creates 3 primary bottlenecks in regulatory monitoring:

1. Every delayed email, report, or document hides a potential risk that can transform into irreversible damage.

2. Among analyzed documents, risks go unnoticed or incorrectly prioritized due to flaws in analysis patterns, whether from an analyst's inexperience or human error caused by overwork.

3. Risks that are communicated, but in a complex or lengthy manner, increase the insensitivity of professionals in other areas to the information forwarded by the regulatory team. Thus, risks may be incorrectly or belatedly evaluated. 

The practical consequence? The regulatory team becomes a "firefighter" rather than acting proactively, driving the team into a negative spiral where every fire consumes preventive action time, thereby sparking more future fires.

3. How can Sigalei help?

Now more than ever, it is necessary for corporate regulatory control areas to stop merely concentrating notifications and evolve to transform regulatory complexity into actionable insights, promoting greater traceability, integrated communication, and efficient governance.

With 10 years in the market, Sigalei has been developing advanced technologies to structuredly address each of these processes.

Process 1: Comprehensive reading of all documents passing the relevance filter.

We know that today, reading all documents humanly is impossible. Thus, we developed artificial intelligence agents that conduct the first full read of all documents, filtering out those touching critical organizational points requiring careful analysis. 

Depending on the company's operation, we are talking about easily reducing the daily reading load by over 95%.

Process 2 - Standardized document analysis via checklists crafted by professionals fluent in the organization's business structure.

To standardize analysis, we developed technology where artificial intelligence operates on rigorously defined stages validated by the regulatory team. As these criteria are updated based on new demands or scenario changes, the process remains consistent, even in the face of high team turnover.

Additionally, professionals assuming new roles quickly comprehend the selection rationale, as the system explicitly details the criteria used in each decision.

Process 3 - Fast and concise communication of new information to all parties needing awareness.

Sigalei generates highly customized reports for different reading profiles, even when synthesizing massive volumes of information. This is possible because AI agents are directed to structure content from specific perspectives, translating regulatory language into the technical context of each audience.

As a result, cognitive effort is significantly reduced, alongside errors stemming from inadequate interpretations.

Process 4 - Continuous composition and maintenance of relevance filters based on updates in public agency publishing structures and organizational objectives.

Sigalei acts as a structured repository of business rules, centralizing monitoring guidelines of public agencies and the organization's strategic objectives.

Furthermore, it has dedicated specialists tracking changes in how public agencies structure and publish their data and documents, reducing the need for internal teams to continuously monitor these alterations.

Also check out the article Sigalei Reports Agent: automate analysis with reliable AI.

Conclusion

It is a consensus that monitoring is the central piece of proactive regulatory affairs. However, few organizations can consistently keep all involved processes operating at a high level. This is because we are in a transition moment: many teams still operate with pre-internet logics amidst the artificial intelligence revolution. This equation is no longer sustainable, and its impacts are increasingly evident.

In this scenario, Sigalei positions itself as a partner in structuring a new model, where information overload yields to applied intelligence and competitive advantage. 

Thus, the regulatory area ceases to be viewed as a cost center and starts acting as a vector for business development. Ultimately, the sustainability and profitability of industries are directly linked to regulation, making the regulatory area a protagonist in the strategic decisions of organizations.

Request your demo based on a real workflow from your market and discover how Sigalei can orchestrate your regulatory processes with security and traceability.