Expert Insights: Your AI in Compliance Questions, Answered

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming how companies approach Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) and product compliance. As this technology becomes more integrated into business operations, leaders understandably have questions about its capabilities, security, and impact on the workforce.

Following our recent webinar, “Market Perspectives: The Future of AI in Product Compliance,” we received numerous insightful questions from attendees. This article provides answers to some of the most common inquiries, drawing on expert insights and our commitment to developing trusted, secure AI solutions for EHS and product compliance.

Key AI Applications in Product Stewardship

Q: What are the key AI applications in Product Stewardship?

AI is being applied across product stewardship to enhance efficiency and provide deeper insights. Key applications include:

• Regulatory Monitoring: AI-powered horizon scanning greatly reduces the time needed for regulatory research by automatically monitoring global sources for changes relevant to a company’s specific products and markets.
• Expert Answers & Research: AI assistants can decipher complex technical and regulatory language, making connections between regulations and chemical data to deliver actionable insights in seconds. This accelerates research and decision-making.
• Supply Chain Data Collection: AI introduces a new level of accuracy to supply chain data management through plausibility checks on supplier questionnaire responses, flagging inconsistencies and improving data quality. AI also offers the ability to upload multiple document types to answer compliance questionnaires, removing friction for suppliers and improving response rates.
• Compliance Document Generation: From Safety Data Sheet (SDS) obtainment and indexing to the creation of complex documents like Digital Product Passports (DPP), AI can support compliance documentation generation.

Data Privacy, Security, and AI “Hallucinations”

Q: How do you manage the risk of AI making incorrect decisions (hallucinations) that could lead to product recalls?

This is a critical concern in the high-stakes world of compliance. The risk of AI “hallucinations”-generating plausible but incorrect information-is managed through a multi-layered, expert-led approach.

Effective AI compliance solutions are not simply built on public large language models (LLMs). Instead, they are purpose-built and trained on proprietary, curated regulatory content. This is combined with a “human-in-the-loop” or “human-over-the-loop” model, where subject matter experts validate critical AI outputs. This ensures that while AI provides speed and scale, the final decisions are backed by human expertise, minimizing the risk of errors and non-compliance.

As 3E's COO, JP O'Sullivan outlined,

“We build our platforms with data governance at its core, applying strict access controls and ensuring all AI applications comply with industry standards. Our focus on security is unwavering because trust is foundational in compliance.”

Q: Does 3E support Product Environmental Compliance (e.g., RoHS, POPs, PFAS, REACH)?

Yes. 3E’s AI capabilities are specifically designed to excel in this domain. Our advanced AI-powered regulatory monitoring systems continuously scan and analyze thousands of global regulatory lists, providing detection of regulatory changes. When a new regulation, such as those concerning PFAS, is proposed or enacted, our systems flag and extract the relevant updates. When connected to customer inventories, our AI-powered tools enable regulatory flags and impact analysis tailored to each inventory.

This process establishes a powerful partnership: 3E’s AI handles the immense scale of continuous monitoring, while our in-house regulatory experts validate these findings and provide essential context. The validated information is then seamlessly integrated into our regulatory intelligence. This synergy ensures that our clients receive timely, accurate, and actionable regulatory intelligence without the burden of manual tracking, empowering them to proactively adapt to evolving compliance landscapes.

The Future of AI and the Compliance Professional

Q: How will AI account for the reduction in demand for human resources? Won’t it eliminate jobs?

This is a common and important question. History shows that technology tends to transform jobs rather than eliminate them entirely. AI should be viewed as a tool that augments the capabilities of compliance professionals, freeing them from repetitive, low-value tasks.

Instead of manually sifting through thousands of documents, professionals can use AI to instantly find the information they need, allowing them to focus on higher-value strategic work: interpreting complex regulations, advising on product design, managing risk, and driving sustainability initiatives. AI handles the “what,” so experts can focus on the “so what.” This shift empowers regulatory teams to become more strategic advisors to the business, ultimately increasing their value.

As one 3E expert outlined,

“AI enhances decision-making, but ultimately, you need the subject matter expertise to validate and act on those recommendations.”

Q: What AI projects are companies starting with in EHS?

Companies are often starting with projects that offer clear, immediate wins. Based on industry trends, early AI projects in EHS and compliance often focus on:

• Automating Regulatory Monitoring: Using AI to reduce the manual effort of tracking global regulatory changes. According to 3E research, 68% of surveyed EHS and product compliance experts are using AI for Regulatory lookups/applicability checks
• Enhancing SDS Management: Leveraging AI to extract and index data from Safety Data Sheets, improving accuracy and accessibility. According to 3E research, 28% of surveyed respondents are leveraging AI for SDS and label summaries and classification checks like GHS and CLP.
• Streamlining Supplier Data Collection: Implementing AI-driven checks to improve the quality of data received from suppliers regarding product composition. Making it easier for suppliers to respond to data requests and improving response rates.

These “low-hanging fruit” applications provide measurable ROI and help build organizational trust in AI technology, paving the way for more advanced use cases.

Next Steps for Adoption of AI in Product Compliance

Establishing trust is the foundation of successfully adopting AI solutions for compliance. To successfully leverage AI, organizations must prioritize choosing a vendor they can trust. It’s not just about trusting AI itself-it’s about trusting your partner to use AI responsibly while safeguarding your data and delivering efficient, accurate results. As 3E CEO Greg Gartland outlined in a recent podcast,

“AI is the most significant and transformative innovation since the internet… [but] AI's power is 100 percent dependent entirely on the sort of data trustworthiness that underpins it.”

The right vendor ensures that AI-driven solutions enhance workflows, improve data accuracy, and simplify processes, empowering teams to achieve compliance and thrive in complex regulatory environments.

Want to learn more?

Watch our on-demand webinar or download our Market Perspectives report to see how trusted AI partnerships can drive success.