ComplyAdvantage FinTea Chats: Why AI Is No Longer Optional in Compliance, with James Kindon of Kabayan Capital

At this edition of ComplyAdvantage FinTea Chats, the conversation explores the realities of modern compliance. James Kindon, a qualified solicitor and senior compliance professional at Kabayan Capital, brings a refreshingly honest perspective shaped by a long and varied career across multiple regulated industries.

Kindon’s route into compliance was not planned and after years in private legal practice in London, the 2008 financial crisis caused his specialist work to dry up almost overnight. Compliance presented itself as a practical next step, but what began as a necessity quickly turned into a vocation. Within days, he knew this was where he wanted to be. Since then, he has held senior compliance roles across mining, insurance, real estate and financial services, giving him a broad view of how regulation plays out in very different environments. While Kindon is clear that no role is enjoyable every single day, he describes compliance as work he genuinely enjoys most of the time.

Reflecting on his time at the Catalyst event, Kindon points to AI as the standout theme. For many in compliance, AI is not a distant concept but something already encountered through increasingly sophisticated scams and criminal activity targeting customers as criminal networks, he notes, have been using advanced technology for some time, forcing firms to respond; his message is clear: AI is not a future consideration, it is already here and while regulatory approaches may differ between regions such as the UK, Europe and the US, the direction of travel is unavoidable as firms that fail to engage with AI risk being left behind.

On his experience as a customer of ComplyAdvantage, Kindon focuses less on product features and more on people as in a crowded market where many providers sound similar, the difference for him has been the quality of relationships. Kindon highlights a culture that feels collaborative rather than sales-driven, with relationship managers who treat clients as partners rather than numbers and that approach, combined with what he sees as promising new product developments, sets the firm apart.

Looking ahead, Kindon returns to the long-standing challenge of manual compliance. From the early days of photocopied passports to today’s vast transaction volumes, the human workload has been immense but automation has helped, but often imperfectly. What excites him now is the growing maturity of AI, which he believes is reaching a turning point and could finally remove large amounts of unnecessary manual work from compliance teams.