Shield sets the stage for Agentic AI future with data science powerhouse

Shield, the global leader in digital communications compliance and governance, expands its leadership in data science as Asi Messica, Ph.D, joins as Vice President of data science. Her appointment underscores Shield’s continued momentum in delivering scalable, explainable AI—fully integrated across the compliance lifecycle— empowering financial institutions to take proactive, confident, and regulatory-aligned action. 

Dr. Asi Messica’s career has been shaped at the intersection of deep technical expertise and practical innovation, developed across both consumer and enterprise-grade AI systems. As VP of Data Science at Lightricks, a pioneer in mobile video and image editing, she spearheaded the development of AI assistants and adaptive learning systems that could interpret unstructured data—like user behavior, images, and text—and turn it into meaningful, personalized output.  

“Bringing Asi on board reinforces our long-standing belief that AI and domain-specific data science are the foundation of compliance transformation,” said Ofir Shabtai, CTO and Co-founder of Shield. “Asi brings the vision and technical expertise to extend that foundation — particularly as we develop agentic AI to bring more autonomy, context-awareness, and intelligence into compliance decision-making.” 

At Shield, Dr. Messica draws on her expertise building AI that understands nuance, context, and behavior—applying it to the demands of digital communications governance, where the stakes are higher, the environments are more regulated, and the data even more fragmented. 

Shield, named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Communications Governance and Archiving, is setting the AI standard for the financial sector. Through the launch of AmplifAI and our pioneering agentic AI framework, we’re moving beyond assistance to autonomy—deploying intelligent agents that act, decide, and drive outcomes. Dr. Messica’s expertise in machine learning, NLP, and behavioral analytics is central to evolving this framework, bringing speed, precision, and proactivity to digital communications compliance.  

“Shield’s data science foundation has already propelled it to the forefront of AI-driven compliance—powering real-time, proactive risk detection that sets the industry pace,” said Dr. Messica. “Now, we’re doubling down. My focus is on scaling and evolving this data science engine to unlock even greater autonomy, precision, and insight—so our customers can govern digital communications with more speed, clarity, and confidence than ever before.”  

As Shield scales globally and deepens its partnerships with top financial institutions, this appointment signals a long-term commitment to AI that delivers real-world impact. From accelerating investigations to proactively detecting risk, Shield’s platform is built for the scale, sensitivity, and security financial services demand—enhancing compliance, reducing operational friction, and empowering firms to act with clarity and confidence.