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In a landmark move to modernise regulatory oversight and operational efficiency, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has launched a dedicated Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force. The initiative marks a strategic effort by the Commission to integrate AI across its functions, from market surveillance to enforcement and investor protection.
To lead the new unit, the SEC has appointed Valerie Szczepanik as its inaugural Chief AI Officer. Szczepanik previously served as head of the Commission’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub), where she led efforts to navigate emerging technologies within financial markets.
As head of the AI Task Force, Szczepanik will coordinate the SEC’s AI strategy, ensuring collaboration across departments and fostering cross-disciplinary innovation. The task force will focus on managing the AI lifecycle—from development to deployment—while maintaining robust governance and compliance standards.
“The AI Task Force will empower staff across the SEC with AI-enabled tools and systems to responsibly augment the agency’s capacity, accelerate innovation, and enhance efficiency and accuracy,” said SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins. “By ingraining innovation into our culture SEC-wide, we will further our mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”
The launch of the task force comes amid growing interest in how regulatory bodies can leverage advanced technologies to keep pace with increasingly complex financial markets. The SEC’s approach aligns with a broader trend among global regulators to adopt AI for data analysis, fraud detection, compliance monitoring, and real-time decision-making.
With Szczepanik at the helm, the SEC’s AI Task Force is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of tech-driven regulation, while reinforcing the Commission’s mandate in an evolving digital economy.
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