According to RegTech firm Napier AI, most AML platforms were never built to support AI, despite growing pressure from boards, vendors, and regulators. The Napier AI / AML Index found that in many markets the cost of compliance is already outpacing the growth of financial crime risk itself, fuelled by regulatory fragmentation and operational inefficiency. Napier AI warns that bolting AI onto existing systems delivers isolated wins at the price of growing architectural complexity, as most AML estates have evolved rather than been designed, with data scattered across sources and controls buried in workflows. Being AI-ready requires data that is accessible, consistent and governed, an architecture built for scale and real-time decisioning, and a control framework that makes outcomes explainable. Napier AI notes firms making genuine progress introduce capabilities alongside existing processes, validate outcomes and build confidence incrementally, with a clear plan to upgrade their underlying risk engines. Where the foundations exist, AI is already cutting false positives in screening and helping investigators surface information or summarise cross-border regulatory requirements faster. Napier AI concludes the next generation of AML will be defined by who creates the conditions for AI to work properly.