The SEC on August 1, 2025, said that it launched an artificial intelligence (AI) task force to spearhead the agency’s efforts to promote innovation and increase the efficiency of its operations.
Valerie Szczepanik, the newly appointed SEC chief AI officer, is leading the task force.
Szczepanik was previously the director of the SEC’s Strategic Hub for Innovation and Financial Technology (FinHub) where she largely worked on crypto issues.
Most companies today leverage AI to make their operations more efficient and effective. The SEC also said that it recognizes the transformative potential of AI. The new task force is expected to accelerate AI integration to bolster the SEC’s mission. The specialized unit will centralize agency-wide efforts and enable interdepartmental collaboration to navigate the AI lifecycle. It is expected to remove barriers to progress, focus on AI applications that maximize benefits, and maintain governance.
The task force is also expected to support innovation from the agency’s departments and facilitate AI integration throughout the agency.
“The AI Task Force will empower staff across the SEC with AI-enabled tools and systems to responsibly augment the staff’s capacity, accelerate innovation, and enhance efficiency and accuracy,” SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said in a statement. “By ingraining innovation into our culture SEC-wide, we will further our mission to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.”
In a statement, Szczepanik said: “The AI Task Force will aim to centralize and align efforts to advance AI-enabled transformation across the entire Commission.”
Before heading up FinHub, she was the senior adviser for digital assets and innovation and an associate director in the Division of Corporation Finance. Before that she was an assistant director in the enforcement division.
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