AI for FCA-regulated firms
A half-day Executive Briefing for UK FCA-authorised firms that uses Consumer Duty, SM&CR, and FOS framing instead of vendor pitches
Half-day session for 6 to 12 Compliance Directors, CROs, Heads of Risk, and SM&CR Senior Managers, in-person or virtual. Covers the six places AI touches regulated decisions today, and the four tests the compliance leadership team needs to pass on each one: Consumer Duty on retail outcomes, SM&CR accountability, FOS explainability, and UK GDPR Article 22 on automated decision-making. Delivered by UK-based, vendor-neutral facilitators through The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd.
- For FCA-authorised firms with 20 to 500 employees
- Vendor-neutral, no reseller commissions
- A trading style of The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd
What a half-day briefing looks like
Six working blocks over roughly four hours, including breaks. Agenda is adapted to your AI estate and SM&CR map before the session, not on the day.
Block 1
Retail AI use case landscape
Map the current state of AI use across the firm's retail book: onboarding and suitability, pricing and underwriting, customer communications, fraud and financial crime screening, and complaint handling. Identify which tools are formally procured and which are in use at desk level without compliance sign-off.
Block 2
Consumer Duty risk review
Walk through the firm's current AI-touched retail stack against the four Consumer Duty outcomes (products and services, price and value, consumer understanding, consumer support). Apply a short retail-outcomes framework to any tool that scores, prices, or communicates with a customer, and record the findings. Output is a per-tool Consumer Duty note the Compliance Director can take to the Board Risk Committee.
Block 3
SM&CR accountability mapping
Identify the material AI tools in production and name the SMF who holds the Statement of Responsibility for each. Where the mapping is absent, draft the amendment text and agree the sign-off route. The session records every material AI tool against the prescribed responsibilities in the firm's SMCR framework.
Block 4
Audit trail, explainability, and human-in-the-loop
Work through where the firm's AI-influenced decisions need a reconstructible decision path, where a reasoned human override is absent, and what the firm would say to the FOS, the FCA, or the Information Commissioner if asked to explain a specific customer outcome. Output is a finding list the model-risk and compliance teams can action.
Block 5
FOS redress implications
Identify the AI tools currently influencing complaint-eligible outcomes, assess whether each has a reconstructible decision path for a specific customer, and flag where the model design carries a redress exposure. The output is a list of tools the complaint-handling team can signpost during a FOS-eligible complaint.
Block 6
Next steps and ownership
Close the session with named owners, decision dates, and a one-page summary that goes into the written briefing note. The written output is a governance finding list the firm can circulate to the compliance, risk, and model-risk teams. No open action items leave the room unassigned.
What you leave the room with
Five outcomes, in the language a Compliance Director would use when briefing the CEO or the Board Risk Committee the next morning.
A written position on AI use across the firm
“We can now say, in one paragraph, where AI may and may not enter our customer-facing decisions, which risks we are willing to carry, and which we are not.”
A Consumer Duty note per retail-touching AI tool
“We have a short, dated Consumer Duty note for every AI tool currently influencing retail customer outcomes, and we know which ones need a human review point added before they stay in production.”
A named SMF per material AI tool
“Every material AI tool in production has a named Senior Manager Function who holds the Statement of Responsibility, and the amendment text is drafted where the mapping was absent.”
A FOS-ready explanation pathway
“For every AI tool that can influence a complaint-eligible outcome, we have a reconstructible decision path and a reasoned human override point we could walk the Ombudsman through.”
A governance finding list, not a strategy deck
“We leave with a short list of things to fix, each with a named owner and a decision date. The written summary lands in the inbox by the end of the week.”
AI for FCA-regulated firms: pricing
A single price with a transparent inclusion and exclusion list. The fee covers the work described below. There are no separate retainers, onboarding fees, or add-ons applied after booking.
Per session, half-day, 6 to 12 leaders
£2,500
Per session. Includes the pre-briefing call, the half-day delivery, and the written summary. Travel charged separately if delivered in person outside London. The exact figure is confirmed in writing before booking.
What is included
- Half-day live session (roughly four hours, including breaks) for 6 to 12 compliance, risk, and SM&CR senior-manager attendees
- Pre-briefing call to map the firm's current AI estate and shape the agenda
- Consumer Duty and SM&CR preparatory note, circulated before the session
- Written briefing summary and a governance finding list the firm can circulate to the compliance, risk, and model-risk teams
- Thirty-minute follow-up call at no additional cost in the four weeks after the session
What is not included
- Implementation, procurement, or configuration of specific AI tooling or model-risk management platforms
- Formal legal or regulatory advice on a specific matter, perimeter question, or supervisory enquiry (refer to the firm's General Counsel or external solicitor)
- A DPIA, a Consumer Duty monitoring report, or an SM&CR amendment filing on the firm's behalf (we produce the finding list; the firm signs the filings)
- 90-day enablement or bespoke programmes (priced separately)
Questions a Compliance Director asks before booking the briefing
Eight questions we hear most often on the AI for FCA-regulated firms briefing specifically. Straight answers, no regulatory claim we cannot defend.
Who should attend the AI for FCA-regulated firms briefing?
- Compliance Directors, Chief Risk Officers, Heads of Risk, SM&CR Senior Managers, Heads of Model Risk, and the General Counsel where the firm has one. We also recommend inviting the Data Protection Officer and the Head of Complaints where the firm carries a substantive retail book. The session works best with a mix of the people who set the governance policy and the people who run the day-to-day AI oversight process.
What preparation is required before the session?
- About sixty to ninety minutes: complete a short pre-briefing inventory of the AI tools currently in production (front-office, middle-office, back-office, and any off-rulebook desk-level use), and flag the current SMF mapping for each. There is nothing to install and no questionnaire to complete.
How do you handle firms that have already procured a specific AI vendor or model-risk platform?
- The briefing is vendor-neutral and starts from the firm's actual stack. We cover the tools you already run and focus on the governance layer (Consumer Duty review, SM&CR accountability, FOS redress, Article 22 human review points, operational resilience mapping) rather than recommending a specific product. If the firm is mid-procurement, we can sequence the briefing before the decision so the findings inform the selection.
What regulatory claim does the briefing make, and what does it not claim?
- We describe the FCA's April 2024 AI Update and November 2024 response, Principles 2 / 3 / 6 / 7 / 12, the Consumer Duty (in force 31 July 2023 for open products and 31 July 2024 for closed products), the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, FSMA section 66A, the Financial Ombudsman Service framework under FSMA Part XVI, PRA Supervisory Statement SS1/21 on operational resilience, FCA SYSC 15A, UK GDPR Article 22, and the ICO's guidance on AI and data protection. We do not claim accreditation, endorsement, or approved-provider status from the FCA, the PRA, the Chartered Insurance Institute, the Personal Finance Society, or any other professional body unless that body has confirmed alignment to us in writing. Any copy that would bind the firm, or a position on a specific customer matter or supervisory enquiry, should be reviewed by the firm's General Counsel, Head of Compliance, or external solicitor.
Do you handle customer data during the briefing itself?
- No. We do not ingest live customer data, account records, suitability files, or model outputs during the briefing. The Consumer Duty and SM&CR reviews run against the firm's own aggregated descriptions of the AI-touched stack where those are available, or against worked examples where they are not.
Are you vendor-neutral, and how do we verify that?
- Yes. Learn AI takes no reseller commissions and carries no platform lock-in. The delivery bench is trained across Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini Workspace, Anthropic Claude, and OpenAI ChatGPT, and across the main FS-specific AI overlays (model-risk platforms, AI fraud detection, AI underwriting and pricing, customer-communication assistants). We are happy to put the commercial position in writing before booking.
Who delivers the session?
- A facilitator from the Learn AI delivery bench with experience in UK FCA-authorised firms. Either a senior associate from The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd or a certified partner trained against the same agenda. We confirm the named facilitator in writing before booking.
What does follow-up look like after the briefing?
- The session concludes with a written summary and a governance finding list, typically sent within five working days. A thirty-minute follow-up call is offered at no additional cost in the four weeks after the session. Further work (the broader Executive AI Briefing for the partnership or Board, 90-Day Enablement for a named team, bespoke programmes) is priced separately and scoped only if the firm asks for it.
What FS compliance and risk leaders tell us after the briefing
Attributions anonymised at role and firm-type level until named clients sign a usage permission.
“The SM&CR mapping block alone was worth the fee. We walked out with three Statement of Responsibility amendments in draft and a defensible position on the two retail-pricing tools the FCA would ask about.”
Chief Risk Officer, UK wealth manager (100 to 250 staff)
“For the first time, our compliance team and our IT function left the same session with the same governance rule set rather than their own interpretations of the FCA's principles-based posture.”
Head of Compliance, UK insurance intermediary (50 to 100 staff)
“Plain-spoken, UK-framed, and genuinely vendor-neutral. The Consumer Duty lens on our customer-facing AI tools was the single most useful hour of training the compliance leadership has had this year.”
Compliance Director, UK asset manager (200 to 500 staff)
Built for UK regulated teams
Three commitments we carry into every engagement. Professional-body alignments are pursued once we have case studies to substantiate them.
GDPR-compliant by design
Assessment data is stored in the UK, minimised by default, and retained only for the term stated in our privacy notice.
UK-based and UK-regulated
A trading style of The AI Consultancy (London) Ltd, registered in England and Wales. Trainers and associates are UK-based.
Vendor-neutral
No reseller commissions, no platform lock-in. Training covers the tools your firm uses, not the tools we are paid to promote.