Where Legal Meets Strategy
At the recent SIX Swiss Exchange event, market leaders gathered to examine one of the most pressing questions IROs are facing: How will AI shape IR in the years ahead?
The conversation brought together critical perspectives on regulation, implementation, and strategic vision. Kellerhals Carrard partners, Rehana Harasgama and Luca Bianchi, opened with insights on Switzerland’s evolving AI regulatory landscape and the accountability frameworks within which innovation must operate. Q4’s Tish Crawford-Jones, EMEA Customer Success & Operational Lead, then demonstrated Q by Q4, the industry’s first IRO Agent, showing how purpose-built AI can address the practical challenges IR teams face daily. A panel discussion moderated by Michael Füglister synthesised these perspectives, exploring what responsible and effective AI adoption looks like in practice.
What emerged was not just a snapshot of where we are, but a compelling vision of where the profession needs to go.
Compliance as the Starting Point
Rehana and Luca framed both the opportunities and the constraints of AI in capital markets. While AI can streamline reporting, personalise engagement, and deliver deeper investor insights, it must operate within strict regulatory boundaries. As Rehana noted, “It’s time to bridge the gap and ensure investors have the stories, facts and figures they need, when they need them from the most trusted source—the companies themselves.”
“It’s time to bridge the gap and ensure investors have the stories, facts and figures they need, when they need them from the most trusted source—the companies themselves.”
Switzerland has taken a distinctive regulatory approach, opting not to create an AI Act like the EU, but instead, adopting a technology-neutral, sector-specific framework. This means issuers will encounter new requirements through existing mechanisms such as the Data Protection Act, FINSA, and listing obligations. The critical takeaway: AI offers efficiency and scale, but it cannot relieve issuers of liability. Companies remain fully accountable for accuracy and compliance in all communications, regardless of the tools used to create them.
From Generic Tools to Purpose-Built Intelligence
The discussion then shifted from regulatory framework to practical application. Tish introduced Q by Q4, explaining how it was designed specifically to address the challenges outlined by the legal experts.
She noted that while generic AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini can be useful for drafting or sentiment analysis, their use in IR is limited to publicly available, non-sensitive information. They lack the depth of IR-specific knowledge and require manual and often extensive data management to remain compliant. Q, by contrast, was built to operate securely within enterprise firewalls and has been trained on capital markets’ best practices, disclosure rules, and local regulatory frameworks, including Swiss regulations. ”The more you use Q, the more it learns about your company’s preferences and work style,” she explained. “So this not only helps an IR team, but it also helps from a corporate knowledge perspective. As people come and go, the information in Q gets stronger and more consistent, so it doesn’t leave with any of your departing colleagues.”
During her live demo, she showed how AI turns manual research into actionable strategy. In minutes, Q analysed peer news, market data, and investor behaviour to surface four key themes for a sample company and translated them into clear strategic recommendations. As she summarised, “The future of investor relations isn’t about replacing human expertise. It’s about amplifying it […] AI serves as your force multiplier, instantly surfacing insights buried in your data, automating the routine, so that you can focus on the strategic and ensuring no opportunity or risks go unnoticed.”
“The future of investor relations isn’t about replacing human expertise. It’s about amplifying it […] AI serves as your force multiplier, instantly surfacing insights buried in your data, automating the routine, so that you can focus on the strategic and ensuring no opportunity or risks go unnoticed.”
A Partnership Approach to AI
The panel discussion reinforced a consistent theme: AI must augment human judgment, not substitute for it. Tish emphasised that “AI should never be the final thing you’re presenting,” stressing that legal compliance teams must remain embedded throughout the process.
She built on this point, clarifying Q’s role as a guide rather than a decision-maker. “The strategic level is definitely needed to be delivered by an individual,” she explains that what AI does is free up your time to focus on the things you cannot find time for today.
Audience questions revealed both the momentum and caution around AI adoption. Early Q users have demonstrated how quickly teams can integrate AI into their workflows, as well as the importance of engaging IT and compliance from the outset. Trust and security remain foundational if AI is to move from pilot projects into enterprise-wide practice.
Framing the Future
Throughout the event, a single question framed the discussion: If you had one wish, what should change in the next five years in the way AI and IR interact?
This question transcends immediate functionality. It challenges us to articulate what the profession truly needs from AI to evolve, not simply what AI can do today, but what it must become to transform how we work.
The Shift Toward Strategic Dialogue
One response captured the sentiment in the room: the aspiration for AI to become genuinely conversational and contextually intelligent rather than transactional. Not just a tool that recognises patterns but one that engages in strategic dialogue.
Consider this scenario: An IR agent that can say, “Based on your Q2 results and current market conditions, here are the investors you need to reach, here are their behaviour signals, and here are the talking points that align with their thesis.” This represents a fundamental shift in how AI supports IR professionals.
Realising this vision requires three critical capabilities:
- Deeper contextual understanding: AI must comprehend a company’s unique narrative, competitive positioning, and industry dynamics, not apply generic templates across disparate situations.
- Proactive insight generation: Rather than responding to queries, AI should surface opportunities and flag risks before they become apparent to the broader market, enabling IROs to act strategically rather than reactively.
- Seamless workflow integration: Intelligence must arrive in context, integrated naturally into existing processes. The goal is augmentation, not additional systems that create friction or require extensive configuration.
The Pivotal Years Ahead
The event made clear that the future of IR lies at the intersection of innovation and accountability. Regulation will ensure responsibility, but innovation will unlock new levels of insight and influence.
Tish concluded by sharing closing remarks written by Q itself: “In a world where investors expect immediate, precise, and personalised engagement, AI doesn’t just help you keep pace, it helps you set it. The question isn’t whether AI will transform IR, it’s whether you’ll lead that transformation or follow it. The future of investor relations is here, and it’s designed to make you more effective, more strategic, and more impactful than ever.”
“In a world where investors expect immediate, precise, and personalised engagement, AI doesn’t just help you keep pace, it helps you set it. The question isn’t whether AI will transform IR, it’s whether you’ll lead that transformation or follow it. The future of investor relations is here, and it’s designed to make you more effective, more strategic, and more impactful than ever.”
Discover how Q is shaping this transformation. Book a demo with Q4 today.
