Insights From the Experts: Closing the Gaps in Voice Monitoring

Why firms must rethink voice monitoring, unify fragmented tools, and bring true accountability to the channel that carries the most risk. 

Voice communication has always been one of the most sensitive, least governed, and hardest-to-monitor channels in financial services. And as the panel in Shield’s recent webinar Rethinking Voice Monitoring: From Bling Spots to Full Coverage made clear, fixing it takes far more than new technology—it takes new ownership, new workflows, and a new approach to AI. 

The conversation pulled no punches with panelists Rajeev Dave (Natixis), Michael Cowell (Deloitte), and Eren Erman (RegTrail; formerly at TP ICAP), and moderated by Alex de Lucena (Shield).  

The panel didn’t just talk tech. They provided candid insights, mapped out where firms are struggling, and what it actually takes to modernize voice compliance. That includes:  

• Integrated solutions: Voice and eComms should live in one ecosystem, with shared metadata, search, and risk logic. 
• Explainable AI: Detection only works if it can be trusted, validated, and defended. 
• Scalability and structure: Point tools can’t keep up. What’s needed are frameworks that evolve with your business and your risk. 

This isn’t just about modernizing solutions. It’s about modernizing accountability. Because when compliance teams are given full visibility into voice, they can stop chasing risk and start managing it. 

The Accountability Problem: Too Many Stakeholders, No Unified Voice Ownership 

The discussion started with the key pain point—accountability (or rather, the lack of it). Instead of being owned strategically, voice is often managed reactively. Rajeev clarified with a mic drop moment:

“I have never found an institution that could tell me who the accountable executive is for something like voice. Everyone assumes it’s someone else’s job… usually IT’s.” 

Rajeev Dave, Global Head of Surveillance, Natixis

In his experience, accountability for voice communications is always shared which leads to it often slipping through the cracks, bouncing between IT, compliance, legal, and risk, but never fully owned. It’s the ultimate hot potato which is constantly passed between departments until it drops, and while it’s a cross collaboration, you need to find the one accountable executive who will own it end-to-end. Meanwhile, voice communications remain some of the riskiest, yet least prioritized, communication channels. That leaves voice floating in a gray zone, acknowledged, but rarely championed. 

Michael put a fine point on it:  

“Voice surveillance is everyone’s job and no one’s priority.”   

Michael Cowell, Senior Manager Risk, Regulatory, and Forensics, Deloitte

When everyone has a stake, but no one has the mandate, fragmentation follows. Legal wants defensibility. Risk wants coverage. IT wants fewer tickets. Compliance wants context. But who’s steering the ship? 

Ensuring executive ownership is in place brings the mandate and momentum teams need to move beyond silos. With one empowered stakeholder and one unified strategy, voice and eComms can finally work together unlocking a compliance program that’s not just scalable, but smarter. 

Fragmented Voice Tools Are Putting Firms at Risk 

Michael stepped in to remind us that even though we think of “the phone” as a single entity, it’s actually a container for multiple communication channels.  

“You can’t just assume that you can turn on the switch and get really good data. You have to really map out each channel, the data that you need, and make sure that you build controls around it and have everything lined up first before you choose your surveillance system.” 

Eren Erman, Former Global Head of Compliance Technology, TP ICAP

And yet, many compliance strategies still treat voice communications like one uniform stream. The breakdown? Most firms technically capture voice. But to do it properly, they might be using 30 different tools. This isn’t just clunky, it’s risky. Fragmented voice data leads to a range of problems, in a patchwork of: 

• Inconsistent metadata 
• Partial search 
• Incompatible retention 
• Broken audit trails 
• Gaps regulators can spot instantly 

Essentially fragmented insights lead to fragmented decisions. And this isn’t just inefficient—it’s a risk that turns compliance into a scavenger hunt, not a strategy. 

That’s where Shield takes a different approach. Our Voice offering isn’t layered on after the fact, it’s fully integrated from the start. Voice, eComms, alerts, transcripts—they all live on the same platform, built on shared foundations. That means they work together seamlessly, delivering the context you need, when and where it matters. No patchwork, just clarity. 

AI Is Changing the Game, Especially for Voice 

AI is reshaping how compliance teams approach voice surveillance, unlocking capabilities they simply didn’t have before. Gone are the days of picking languages, making hopeful assumptions, and crossing fingers that reviewers can untangle the mess, as Michael pointed out. GenAI understands meaning and tone without rigid rules—making voice review faster, smarter, and far less manual. 

From there, Alex spotlighted what that shift enables in practice. Once models can interpret calls through a compliance lens, teams can layer on capabilities like AI can now automatically break long calls into topic-based segments, so reviewers can skip to the relevant parts instead of scrubbing through hours of audio. It can surface sentiment shifts that might signal frustration or misconduct. And it can flag triage-worthy moments, like trading language or compliance red flags, without needing manual prompts. 

“GenAI allows us to do the things that we’ve always wanted to do in voice… you can bake in instructions to make it understand those calls through the lens of a compliance officer, to identify the particular risk.” 

Alex de Lucena, Director of Surveillance & Governance Strategy, Shield

But powerful AI still requires discipline. Eren brought an important reminder: AI is powerful, but it still needs grounding. You can’t take outputs at face value. “Test it. Validate it. Know your ground truth.” Because when it comes to AI, nothing builds an audit trail like explainability. 

ROI Is Finally in the Conversation 

Rajeev noted a shift that’s worth paying attention to: Compliance leaders have always cared about impact, but now they’re being asked to prove it in hard numbers. It’s no longer enough to say a solution is important—it needs to be measurable, defensible, and aligned with business value. 

“Show me you’re finding that smoking gun. Show me you’re finding something different that I couldn’t have found with a simpler solution.” 

Rajeev Dave, Global Head of Surveillance, Natixis 

Point solutions that only solve part of the problem? They’re being questioned. Platforms that can unify workflows, reduce false positives, and surface real risk faster? Those are winning. 

The solutions gaining traction are the ones that show real operational impact—reducing noise, accelerating triage, and integrating smoothly into how teams already work. 

The Real Question: Why Expect Less From Voice? 

Alex wrapped it all with a deceptively simple question: If compliance teams are going to spend this much time capturing, translating, reviewing, and escalating— why do teams settle for fragmented tools and manual workflows? 

Because better isn’t just faster. It’s smarter workflows, clearer insights, and fewer blind spots. It’s giving smart people the visibility and control to act with confidence—without sifting through noise or juggling 27 tabs. 

Unified Platforms Must Become the New Standard 

With unified platforms, explainable AI, and clear ownership, firms can finally govern voice like eComms, connect insights across channels, eliminate silos, act faster, and of course, reduce regulatory exposure. 

The solution to unify voice communications into a single, searchable, fully governed workflow exists. Shield’s Voice offering gives complete oversight of audio communications, making every call as transparent, searchable, and governable as email or chat, without the blind spots of legacy tools or manual sampling. 

If this recap helped connect the dots, imagine what Shield can do in action. If you want to watch the full webinar, you can find it here. Ready to see what Shield Voice can do in practice? Watch the demo or contact us.