Reacfin, a consultancy specializing in actuary, quantitative finance and data science for the financial sector, participated in the Tremplin IA initiative with its ReacLM project. This project highlighted the potential of chatbots to optimize business operations by automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks. The chatbot developed for this project specifically addressed the challenge of automatically identifying changes in new versions of financial regulations and assessing their impact on a client based on their sector and activities.

Motivation and Challenges

Manually reviewing financial regulations is a labor-intensive process due to their length and complexity. Some regulations exceed 700 pages, and identifying changes necessitates meticulous comparison between the new and old versions. This task is further complicated by the dense, domain-specific language and intricate legal phrasing involved. Consequently, the review process demands substantial time and effort from financial experts, leading to high operational costs. However, it remains a critical task for financial consultants to advise clients on regulatory compliance and the implications of new regulations.

The Solution

The ReacLM project's chatbot streamlines this process by taking two versions of a regulation, analyzing the client’s sector and activities, and generating a list of changes and their specific impact on the client’s business. This automation empowers consultants to focus on higher-value tasks, thereby increasing productivity and overall efficiency.

The chatbot's analytical capabilities were refined through successive client feedback and iterations. It now delivers more detailed responses, including the identification of impacted institutions and business areas, along with explanations for each finding. This demonstrates that a tailored, domain-specific chatbot can yield more accurate and insightful results than a generic solution like ChatGPT, ultimately leading to higher user satisfaction.

Project Scope and Future Opportunities

The Wallonian government, through the Tremplin IA program, subsidized a significant portion of the project's budget, which totaled less than €50k. The most time-consuming task was ensuring the chatbot's accuracy and speed in identifying impactful changes. This was followed by iterative improvements based on client feedback.

Future enhancements for similar projects could include providing citations and linking directly to the relevant text fragments in the regulations. Although not a priority in this case, B12 Consulting has the expertise to integrate these features, further enhancing transparency and user confidence.