AI in Regulatory Compliance: Meeting Legal Standards in Written Content

AI regulatory requirements

What’s AI regulatory compliance?

For enterprises, especially those producing large amounts of written content using generative AI, maintaining ethical and legal Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage is essential — not just for following rules, but for safeguarding trust and avoiding significant risks. This blog explores AI’s role in regulatory compliance, how to approach managing compliance risk in enterprise content, and how businesses can make sure their AI systems meet evolving legal standards.

AI regulatory compliance refers to the process of making sure AI systems, including machine-based systems used in enterprise content creation, follow relevant laws, ethical guidelines, and industry standards. This process involves monitoring and governing AI technologies to prevent breaches in data privacy, bias, or unethical practices. 

AI regulatory compliance in written communication ensures that content is accurate, ethical, and free from biased language, misinformation, or deceptive practices. It can also include alignment with industry regulations and regulated terminology. This helps to maintain quality and integrity.

Why is artificial intelligence regulation so important?

AI regulation and governance is critical because AI systems have the potential to profoundly impact society — both positively and negatively. In enterprises where AI models generate large volumes of content, maintaining regulatory compliance is key to avoiding legal risks, reputational damage, and breaches of trust. Misuse of AI, such as creating biased or deceptive content, can lead to significant penalties and erode both stakeholder and customer confidence in a company.

For enterprises using generative AI in content creation, regulatory compliance helps make content accurate, inclusive, and free of bias or discriminatory language. AI technologies bring benefits, but they need well-defined ethical and legal boundaries to avoid compliance issues.

AI regulation in the EU

The European Union has led the way in regulating AI, recognizing its growing influence on business operations and decision-making. The EU AI Act, proposed in 2021, is a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI. This legislation categorizes high-risk AI systems, such as those used in critical infrastructure or healthcare, under strict regulatory requirements.

Under the EU framework, the regulation of AI systems focuses on transparency and preventing misleading or biased outputs. This is especially important in high-risk sectors like finance, life sciences, and public safety, where mistakes can have severe consequences. These rules also address the need for data privacy protections in AI-generated content.

AI regulation in the U.S.

In the U.S., while AI-specific laws are still developing, several regulatory frameworks are being put in place. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released guidelines to help organizations manage AI risk. The AI Bill of Rights, introduced by the Biden administration, seeks to protect citizens from AI-driven harm. Federal agencies are increasingly focusing on ensuring the ethical use of AI in real and virtual environments to promote fairness and transparency.

For enterprise content teams using AI systems, adherence to U.S. regulations means prioritizing ethical use, protecting consumer data, and avoiding discriminatory outputs. Failing to comply leads to severe penalties, especially if AI-generated content misleads customers or breaches privacy standards. Enterprises must focus on trustworthy development and model inference to meet regulatory and customer expectations.

Avoid high-risk AI systems that lead to non-compliant content

Enterprises need to avoid high-risk AI systems that lead to non-compliant content. Watch out for indicators of high-risk AI systems. Some examples include:

Indicator What’s the risk for enterprises?
Deceptive algorithmsAI technologies that generate misleading content can lead to legal issues and damage trust.
Biased AI outputArtificial intelligence systems trained on biased datasets can produce discriminatory content, causing compliance problems.
DeepfakesThe use of AI technology to create fabricated content, such as deepfakes, presents significant legal and ethical risks.
Breaches of privacyAI tools that mishandle user data may violate data privacy regulations such as GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Best practices for using AI in your content supply chain

To reduce the risk of non-compliance, enterprises should follow these recommendations when using AI in your content supply chain:

  • Use ethical datasets: Make sure the data used to train AI models is inclusive, diverse, and free from bias. This reduces the risk of discriminatory outputs.
  • Implement transparency: Use AI tools that offer clear explanations of how content is generated and how decisions are made.
  • Conduct regular audits: Continuously monitor and audit AI-generated content to verify it aligns with legal and ethical standards.
  • Stay informed: Keep up with evolving AI regulations and adjust compliance strategies accordingly.

Acrolinx and AI guardrails for content

As enterprises adopt generative AI for content creation, governance tools like Acrolinx help manage both content quality and compliance. Acrolinx provides AI governance by:

  • Automated compliance checks: Acrolinx scans content to confirm alignment with regulatory frameworks, covering inclusivity and compliance.
  • AI guardrails: The platform enforces brand, legal, and regulatory standards across AI-generated and human-written content, reducing the chance of publishing non-compliant content.
  • Scalability and integration: Acrolinx integrates with various authoring environments, automating quality checks across repositories and scaling compliance management.

By using generative AI and governing content with Acrolinx, enterprises can navigate complex regulations more confidently, minimizing the risks associated with non-compliance while maintaining stakeholder (and customer) trust.

As AI continues to influence the way we create, write, publish, and manage content, enterprises must make sure their AI systems follow evolving legal and ethical standards. With the support of AI governance platforms like Acrolinx, businesses can maintain accuracy, inclusivity, and compliance in both AI-generated and human-created content. The right tools allow companies to meet their language-based legal obligations while improving content quality and efficiency across the board.

Are you ready to create more content faster?

Schedule a demo to see how content governance and AI guardrails will drastically improve content quality, compliance, and efficiency.

Kiana's portriat.

Kiana Minkie

She comes to her content career from a science background and a love of storytelling. Committed to the power of intentional communication to create social change, Kiana has published a plethora of B2B content on the importance of inclusive language in the workplace. Kiana, along with the Acrolinx Marketing Team, won a Silver Stevie Award at the 18th Annual International Business Awards® for Marketing Department of the Year. She also started the Acrolinx Diversity and Inclusion committee, and is a driving force behind employee-driven inclusion efforts.