Ms Deppmeyer, BaFin has launched its own AI assistant, RAGulator. Why did you decide to take this step?

Deppmeyer: Artificial intelligence is a key technology. No company or modern public authority can get by without using it. The aim of BaFin’s AI platform and our AI assistant, RAGulator, is to make our supervisory work even more effective. And this is necessary – every day we receive a huge amount of data that is relevant to BaFin's work. We can only process all of it with digital support.

This step fits seamlessly into the German Federal Government’s digital strategy, which aims to make the work of public authorities faster and more digital on the whole.

There are numerous external providers in the field of artificial intelligence. Why did BaFin develop its own AI assistant?

Deppmeyer: As a supervisory authority, BaFin works with highly sensitive data. This data has to be protected. RAGulator is powered by our in-house AI platform, which is hosted entirely at our own data centres. This is a decisive advantage over public cloud solutions. It means we have control over the data and can prevent sensitive information from being used, for example, for AI training by external providers. Protecting information and ensuring data integrity is essential for us: BaFin’s data stays with BaFin.

How is AI changing the way BaFin works?

Deppmeyer: It can take time-consuming routine tasks off our hands. This frees up valuable time that we can put to better use elsewhere.

In future, these underlying functions will enable us to establish automated supervisory processes based on the AI platform. For example, we are currently working on using AI to search, compare and summarise large volumes of documents. In future, this will enable us to detect anomalies, cases of price manipulation and indications of money laundering.

We are just starting to unlock the potential that AI can offer for our work. It is important that we view AI as a tool that assists us – there is no way it can replace human expertise. We need to work together to identify and develop its potential applications.

Developing an in-house AI platform is complex. How exactly did you go about it?

Deppmeyer: BaFin’s IT divisions developed the platform in house with the assistance of external experts. This enabled us to build up our internal know-how – an asset that few public authorities possess. As a result, our colleagues are much sought after to give talks on this topic. They have already presented RAGulator and shared their knowledge at international conferences in Munich, Vienna, Las Vegas and Boston. This demonstrates BaFin's innovative prowess and points the way forward for public administration in the future.