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This year, Napier AI celebrates a decade of growth, innovation, and relentless focus on helping financial institutions stay one step ahead of financial crime. What started as a vision to make compliance smarter and more effective has grown into a global business with offices across multiple continents and more than 100 customers worldwide.
Over the past 10 years, we’ve witnessed extraordinary shifts in the financial crime landscape: rapid digitalisation, evolving regulatory demands, and an increasingly complex web of criminal tactics. Through it all, our mission has been to deliver trusted, cutting-edge technology that empowers our customers to protect their businesses and their clients.
As we look ahead, our leadership team reflects on what the future demands:
The future of compliance – Greg Watson, Chief Executive Officer
Over the past decade, the fight against financial crime has become more complex, more urgent, and more visible. When Napier AI was founded, much of the industry relied on legacy technology, fragmented processes, and largely manual compliance checks. AI and automation brought by NextGen solutions allow compliance teams to do more, with more focus. This is reshaping the compliance landscape, driving efficiencies, and enabling faster, smarter responses to emerging threats. The Napier AI / AML Index, the industry’s only global report on AI’s impact in money laundering, reflects just how much technology and innovation are now at the centre of this fight.
Over the last decade, we’ve expanded deeper into Asia Pacific and the Americas, now serving some of the world’s largest financial institutions including HSBC, State Street, Mizuho Trust & Banking, SS&C, Starling, Clear Bank and WTW. Alongside this expansion, we’ve been recognised with industry accolades, winning 14 awards in 2024 alone, including recognition from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This success was continued into 2025, where we were recently named as a ‘Best Managed Company’ by Deloitte Private UK.
This growth is a reflection of the trust our clients place in us and the value we deliver through innovation. We look forward to the next decade, which will demand real-time decisioning, trusted AI, and integrated risk platforms as a minimum.
The future of AI and machine learning – Dr. Janet Bastiman, Chief Data Scientist
Ten years ago, AI in AML was more promise than practice. Most systems relied on basic rules, statistical models, and manual intervention. The focus was on automating alerts and reducing false positives, but the tools were often rigid and hard to explain, leaving compliance teams with limited trust in the outputs.
Over the past decade, both the technology and the regulatory environment have shifted. Regulators have sharpened their expectations around transparency and explainability, pushing vendors to design AI that is not only powerful but also trustworthy.
At Napier AI, we’ve embraced this evolution through our compliance-first approach to AI and our continued relationships with the regulators and industry bodies. We recently announced our synthetic data partnership with the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, a project that feeds directly into the Napier AI Continuum platform. I also serve as Chair of the Royal Statistical Society’s Data Science and AI Section and Vice-Chair of the AI Taskforce, roles that allow me to help shape how AI is used responsibly not only for Napier AI but also across sectors within the UK.
Our compliance-first AI is built with explainability and transparency, to be relevant to each business and tuned to their risk appetite. For our customers, this means access to AI capabilities that go beyond being shiny or experimental. They can be proactive; confident that the tools they use are aligned with regulatory thinking, grounded in real-world application, and designed to give them a competitive edge in fighting financial crime.
The future of AML communities – Louise O’Connell, Chief Customer Officer
At Napier AI, our customers sit at the heart of everything we do. To make sure we are building solutions that give our customers true competitive advantage in compliance, we’ve expanded how we listen, learn, and act on feedback for our growing customer base.
Through our client councils, customers can engage directly with their peers and influence our product roadmap by helping to shape new features, prioritise enhancements, and helping us to refine the platform for real-world needs. This customer community engagement and collaboration ensures that our solutions are not only responsive to today’s challenges, but also proactive in preparing for market, regulatory, and technological changes.
The impact is tangible. Our customers have been and continue to be recognised with industry awards for AML excellence, including the prestigious Celent Model Risk Manager awards for two consecutive years, showing that compliance is not just about avoiding regulatory fines; it builds investor confidence, enhances customer experience, and strengthens market reputation.
By embedding our customers right at the centre of our innovation cycle, we give financial institutions the tools to stay ahead: agile compliance platforms, faster access to enhancements, and smarter use of AI. This means our clients can meet regulatory expectations with confidence while adapting quickly to new risks and opportunities, supported by the Napier AI team.
The future of work and talent – Stacy Lowe, Chief People Officer
Technology and AI may be transforming compliance, but people remain at the centre of it. The next decade will be defined by the industry’s ability to attract, retain, and inspire the right talent.
Napier AI is committed to creating an environment where top talent can thrive; data scientists who push the boundaries of AI, engineers who build resilient infrastructure, and compliance experts who translate regulatory demands into practical solutions.
The challenge is not only hiring the best people but ensuring they have the skills to adapt as the landscape evolves. That’s why we are investing in continuous learning, cross-functional collaboration, and a culture of curiosity and innovation. To scale this capability, we have opened two Centres of Excellence, in Belfast, Northern Ireland and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
As financial crime becomes more sophisticated, the industry will need people who combine technical expertise with creativity, resilience, and integrity. Our goal is to remain a workplace where those people can do their best work, helping to make the world a safer place.
The future of market leadership – Adam Flowers, CRO
Over the past decade, Napier AI has established itself as a market-leading AML provider, transforming the way financial institutions manage risk and compliance.
As we look ahead, I’m energised by the opportunities the next decade brings. The market is evolving faster than ever with institutions seeking platforms that not only meet regulatory expectations but also create competitive advantage and strengthen customer trust. As we accelerate our growth, we strive to operate with agility and stay close to our customers to ensure we are delivering real value and constantly innovate across all functions.
Through this, Napier AI is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation with the kind of compliance-first AI led focus that the industry needs right now, to unlock the full potential of their AML programs.
As for the next ten years?
Napier AI’s first decade has been a story of growth, resilience, and relentless innovation. But we are only just getting started.
The next ten years will demand real-time technology, trusted AI, stronger relationships, and brilliant talent. With our clients and partners by our side, we are ready to lead the way.
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Photo by David Karimzadeh on Unsplash
