Introducing KYB AI: Smarter UBO Discovery with spektr

One of the most frustrating bottlenecks in Know Your Business (KYB) processes, especially in high-risk sectors like payments, is figuring out who actually owns a company. It’s no secret that public registries can at times be incomplete. And the reality is, manual research is slow and error-prone because compliance teams are left piecing together ownership structures using an array of methods, such as spreadsheets, Google searches, PDFs and a mix of scattered tools.

That’s why we're so excited to announce our latest product release: KYB AI, built to change exactly these pain points that are still affecting too many people who work in the compliance industry. This blog will break down exactly what it is and how it works.

From Partial Ownership Trees to Full Transparency

KYB AI helps automatically complete incomplete ownership trees and identify the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) of a company, even when the data is missing or buried across different sources. This is something we’ve been working on for a while, considering that incomplete ownership trees occur more than on just the ‘special occasion’.

Payments companies and fintechs are required to identify and verify UBOs as part of their AML obligations, but doing this accurately still depends on manual checks and disconnected data. KYB AI introduces a “fill the gaps for me” button right inside spektr to solve this problem with just a single click.

Designed for Complex Compliance Workflows

KYB AI fits naturally into the day-to-day workflows of onboarding, monitoring and investigations. Some of the most common use cases include:

• Right after onboarding. If a company’s ownership tree is incomplete after initial setup, KYB AI can help identify the missing links.

• During periodic reviews. When revisiting a customer profile, the AI can look for updates in ownership or control.

• In response to red flags. If an alert triggers a deeper check, users can explore ownership layers with support from AI.

From uploaded documents. When ownership structures are pulled from filings or registers, the AI can validate and enrich what is missing.

How It Works

KYB AI begins with basic inputs like a company name, jurisdiction and any known owners. From there, it uses a combination of search queries, data integrations, and reasoning to expand the ownership tree. It looks across public and commercial sources, depending on availability, to instantly pull missing pieces of the puzzle together.

It then returns suggestions for missing entities, additional parent companies, or UBOs. Each suggestion includes a source reference and short explanation. Before proceeding with any actions, you can hover over each suggestion to view details, and then choose to approve or reject it before any changes are added to the company tree.

Built for Trust

KYB AI doesn’t make blind guesses – it uses available data and source credibility to prioritize suggestions. All AI-sourced items are clearly marked and auditable, with the goal being not to replace human oversight, but to support faster, more accurate decisions.

This is especially relevant in the payments industry, where ownership structures are always complex and fast-moving. With KYB AI, spektr users can close information gaps in a matter of seconds instead of hours, and gain a clearer view of who controls the companies they do business with.

See It in Action

If you work in payments, compliance, or risk, this is your new shortcut to ownership clarity. Want to see it for yourself? We’d love to show you how it works. Book a demo and see how KYB AI can transform your compliance workflows.