"In today's digital age, security compliance is not just a necessity but a cornerstone of trust," says Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran, a leading compliance engineering expert at Intuit. He provides insights at a crucial time when cybersecurity threats and regulatory complexities are at an all-time high.

Akshay directly enhances Intuit's security environment with his initiatives, setting a high bar for digital security across the industry.

The Imperative of Compliance in a Digital World

Immense pressure forces businesses to fortify their defenses while adhering to increasingly stringent regulatory requirements. Intuit, a global financial software company, faces these challenges head-on and uses professionals like Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran to enhance its security posture.

Akshay integrates advanced automation and machine learning into compliance engineering, streamlining processes and reducing human error with his innovative methodologies.

"We’ve reinforced a system that automates compliance checks across many layers, significantly reducing the risk of non-compliance and potential breaches," Akshay explains. "This has been a game-changer for us, allowing for continuous monitoring and swift responses to potential threats."

Intuit Assist: A Revolution in Financial Guidance

Intuit Assist, a distinctive artificial intelligence (AI)-a powered platform offering personalized financial guidance to over 100 million subscribers, is central to Intuit's innovative course of action. Akshay’s role in the development of Intuit Assist was crucial via the achievement of compliance certifications along with the development of new security controls, policies, and standards, which paved the way for an advanced assistant. The system handles 810 million AI-driven interactions and 25 million natural language conversations annually.

Intuit Assist provides real-time data to offer customized guidance that adapts to each user's unique financial scenario, setting itself apart. Unlike conventional financial tools that basically react to user inputs, Intuit Assist takes a proactive stance, anticipating needs based on a deep understanding of each user's financial journey. By seamlessly integrating across Intuit products such as Quickbooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma, and MailChimp, it democratizes financial decision-making for individuals and businesses. Compliance certifications served as a cornerstone to the integration of the assistant across Intuit products whilst also allowing data sharing between Intuit and its financial partners.

"Automation in compliance improves accuracy, but it also enhances our ability to predict and prevent security incidents," says Akshay Sekar. "Foresight is a superpower that only AI can supply for now."

Automating Compliance: A Technological Leap

Akshay leads the compliance automation framework at Intuit, utilizing automation and artificial intelligence to perform real-time audits and generate comprehensive, easy-to-interpret reports. This innovation has streamlined the auditing process, reducing the time required from weeks to mere hours.

This allows Intuit to maintain compliance with global security compliance standards such as ISO 27001, PCI, SOC2, and SOX  more efficiently, freeing up resources to focus on proactive security measures. In 2023, Intuit's automated systems flagged potential vulnerabilities in third-party integrations, allowing immediate mitigation before any exploit could occur.

A Vision for Sustainable Security

As the digital terrain shapeshifts, strategies employed to secure it must also change. Akshay envisions a future where compliance engineering is fully integrated into enterprise operations and advances with AI and machine learning. This integration will enable security frameworks to be more dynamic and responsive and adapt to new threats in real-time.

"The future of compliance engineering lies in its ability to scale with the changing digital environment," Akshay reflects. "Our goal is to create a resilient infrastructure that not only meets today's standards but anticipates and prepares for tomorrow's challenges."

Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran exemplifies the critical role of compliance engineering in modern enterprise security through his work at Intuit. He has bolstered Intuit's defenses and set a new industry benchmark through his use of automation and AI.

"Ultimately, our mission is to build trust through security," concludes Akshay Sekar Chandrasekaran. "We can establish a safer digital future for everyone by staying ahead of regulatory demands and emerging threats."

This piece was published as part of HackerNoon’s Business Blogging Program. For more details, please click here.