CFTC Deploys AI Tools to Modernize Market Surveillance

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to review registration applications and monitor trading, CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig told CoinDesk in a report published Tuesday (April 28).

The regulator is training staff to use Microsoft’s Copilot and is building its own AI tools as well, according to the report.

To automate the registration process, the CFTC is building AI tools that will review applications and flag blank spaces, inadequate descriptions and other things that are clearly wrong, saving time for staff, Selig said, per the report.

The regulator is also building AI tools for market surveillance and already has some that can help staff draw conclusions about some trades, Selig told CoinDesk.

The report said that the CFTC has cut more than a fifth of its workforce as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to reduce federal staffing, and that Selig said AI and automation can make up the difference.

Selig told a congressional committee on April 16 that AI is one of the technologies the agency is using to “run more like businesses” and to be “more efficient than ever before.”

During his testimony, Selig said the CFTC is incorporating AI throughout the building, is training all its staff on Copilot, and is incorporating AI and automation throughout the registration process.

“This is going to make their jobs much easier,” Selig said of AI and how it will help CFTC staff. “It’s going to make them much more productive in their day-to-day tasks. It’s going to allow them to do things like create new types of workflows for more efficient operations.”

The CFTC announced April 10 that it named the members of its newly formed Innovation Task Force (ITF), which is dedicated to advancing “clear rules of the road” for those who want to build novel products and technologies within U.S. derivatives markets.

On April 9, Selig said in a post on X that the agency launched an Innovation Tracker to spotlight its innovation initiatives. In the Tracker, the CFTC said AI and autonomous systems make up one of its three core innovation themes, along with crypto assets and blockchain technology, and prediction markets and event contracts.

Selig said in the post: “The [CFTC] is hard at work to keep pace with the rapid speed of innovation in our markets.”