Managing off-channel communication risks in digital insurance

Digital communication is evolving faster than ever, changing how insurers interact within the workplace. With 66% of FinServ organizations allowing employees to communicate via text message, it's no surprise that emojis, memes, and video-based modes of communication have naturally made their way into the workplace through various off-channel platforms.

As these digital expressions become more common in business conversations, they present a growing compliance risk despite their often playful contribution. In highly regulated industries like insurance, where every form of communication is subject to scrutiny, the challenge is to drive digital transformation without amplifying regulatory risk, ensuring companies can adopt modern communication tools while remaining fully compliant.

The hidden risks of emojis in off-channel messaging

Emojis may seem harmless, but they can unintentionally imply intent, agreement or endorsement—sometimes with significant consequences. For example, the thumbs-up emoji (👍) might be intended as a simple acknowledgement or recognition tactic, yet it could also be interpreted as endorsement of a policy change, approving a claim, or signaling agreement on sensitive business matters.

Recent research by Smarsh highlights the prevalence of these short-form communication tools: 94% of surveyed employees in financial services and insurance believe emojis have a place in conversations with colleagues, while 57% report even using them in client communications. While digital expressions like emojis can make communication more casual and efficient, many regulated industries fail to understand the risks these tools pose when introduced in sensitive conversations.

This rising modern trend exposes the need to establish intent-based oversight as an emerging industry standard—ensuring that every emoji, GIF, or meme shared in a professional context is interpreted correctly and does not create unintended liability or exposure. Implementing clear policies and monitoring off-channel communication platforms is essential to balancing employee engagement with regulatory compliance.

Balancing innovation with compliance in regulated industries

As communication methods evolve, regulations are expected to remain technology-agnostic, requiring firms to map use cases back to existing recordkeeping, surveillance and disclosure requirements. With technology changing faster than regulation, insurance teams must proactively strengthen governance, data integrity and risk controls to avoid supervisory blind spots and reputational damage.

Regulators have stated that compliance rules are intended to be agnostic to specific technology tools like WhatsApp, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, making it the individual firm's responsibility to define rules and manage risks. Innovative tools must be in line with transformation goals, enabling digital collaboration while maintaining oversight and auditability. By adopting intent-based oversight, insurers can strengthen governance while promoting safe and responsible innovation.

Capturing messaging intent
For highly regulated industries, the solution isn't to ban emojis altogether, but to mitigate the risks through understanding and governing their intent. The goal is to preserve modern communications tools and remain innovative without introducing unnecessary regulatory risks. This requires a combination of clear expectations, education, and the right technology. Core steps to prevent regulatory pitfalls include:

1. Define boundaries and context: Internally establish when digital expressions are appropriate, what intent they imply, and where they should be avoided across client conversations.
2. Encourage employee training: Equip employees properly on tone, interpretation, and the compliance risks of casual communication when used in the workplace.
3. Implement compliance tools: Adopt tools and solutions that can not only detect the characters used, but read the intent behind them, leading to quickly identified red flags.

The Path Forward ⏭️
Digital transformation across the insurance sector requires more than adopting new tools—it demands a thoughtful approach to managing the off-channel risks of emoji, slang and other modern messaging trends. Compliance and IT teams that work hand in hand to embed monitoring, archiving, and governance capabilities directly into communication platforms are proactively working against potential fines and miscommunication.

As digital transformation evolves and short-form messaging becomes the new standard, the most forward-thinking firms will create a culture where compliance and innovation reinforce each other, creating a communication ecosystem that is dynamic, responsible and built for the next era of digital engagement.