SEBI is working on many AI projects to enhance efficiency: Madhabi Puri Buch

As the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) uses artificial intelligence (AI) to process initial public offering (IPO) documents faster, capital markets regulator chairwoman Madhabi Puri Buch has reiterated the growing use of artificial intelligence in the regulator in to improve operational efficiency and speed up processes.

At the annual board meeting of the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI), Buch said, “We have about a dozen AI projects at SEBI today. Half of them are to facilitate faster approvals and faster resolutions.”

“Our current focus on IPOs is to ensure that no IPO document exceeds three months from the date of initial application. All this is the magic of technology,” she said, as reported by Moneycontrol.

She said if current efforts continue, the country’s wealth creation will not stop.

Through ongoing AI projects, SEBI aims to significantly reduce approval times, thereby supporting a more dynamic and responsive regulatory environment.

Last month at FICCI’s 21st annual capital markets conference, Buch said, “We have already implemented AI at SEBI for processing public documents.”

She added: “Let’s say, for example, a REIT annual report or an InvIT annual report; previously, a person would read and check whether the annual report complied with our standards. Now AI performs this task. The SEBI official checks it and also does some manual checks, but 80% of the work is done by artificial intelligence.”

She added it Processing of IPO documents based on artificial intelligence will naturally speed up this process.

Meanwhile, volThe SEBI chief also urged companies to actively start implementing innovations and technologies.

“If you have to be proactive and know what’s going on in your setup before we know about it… If you don’t have the technology, you’ll be surprised by what we discover,” she said, pointing to the compliance required when examining IPO processes.

SEBI is also introducing an innovative initiative by establishing a new institution called Performance Validation Agency, whose task is to validate claims related to investment advisory services. This move to reduce the time taken to process IPO documents coincides with the growing number new-age technology companies preparing to go public.

More than 10 startups are expected to IPO this year, including big names like Ola Electric, FirstCry and Swiggy, while companies like ixigo and Awfis are already listed.