Global Screening Services (GSS), a UK-based provider of sanctions screening technology for regulated financial institutions, has partnered with cloud engineering company Storm Reply to introduce Cloud Guardian, an AI-powered tool used in the development of its transaction screening platform. The tool reviews proposed changes to the cloud infrastructure behind the platform before they are released, allowing GSS to make updates faster while final release decisions remain with its engineers.
How Cloud Guardian reviews infrastructure changes
Cloud Guardian analyses each proposed infrastructure change and highlights those that may require closer attention, helping engineers separate routine updates from changes that need further review. According to GSS, preparation for complex infrastructure releases has fallen from around 2 days to less than 4 hours. Individual reviews that previously took around 30 minutes can now be completed in roughly 3, as engineers focus on the issues flagged by the AI rather than checking every line of a change manually.
Storm Reply, part of the Reply Group and an AWS Premier Consulting Partner, built the tool as a cloud-native solution on AWS, working alongside GSS’s platform engineers. The work included testing how the AI should be instructed, which model could deliver reliable analysis at an acceptable operating cost, and how the tool should connect to GSS’s existing release process. As a result, GSS has not needed to replace its infrastructure tools or add a separate review stage, and its engineers can maintain the solution themselves.
Sanctions screening context
GSS’s announcement refers to recent findings by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority on weaknesses in firms’ sanctions controls, including outdated lists, poor screening configuration, and delays in updates. According to GSS, more than 40 billion cross-border transactions are screened for sanctions compliance each year, often several times across different jurisdictions, and almost 99% of those flagged for investigation turn out to be false positives. GSS, which raised more than USD 47 million in a Series A2 funding round in 2024, provides a cloud-based, standardised, and centralised screening service intended to reduce repeated screening, false positives, and investigation time.
Adam Clarke, Chief Technology Officer at GSS, said the tool allows the company to change the infrastructure supporting its sanctions screening service more efficiently while retaining the control required for technology used by regulated financial institutions. Clarke added that because sanctions screening operates in a constantly changing environment, the platform underpinning it needs to evolve at the same pace. Rachel Grunwerg, Partner at Storm Reply, said the main opportunity for AI in this case was not to automate the final decision, but to reduce the manual interpretation engineers carry out before making it.
