Enabling defence sales with an agentic KYC tool

A pre-existing policy in the shareholder agreement effectively blocked defence sales. Growing commercial interest made it important to agree which customers and uses the company could responsibly serve.

Shareholders with strong ESG commitments were driving scrutiny of ethical and human-rights risks. Opening the market depended on aligning shareholders and the board around clear boundaries, a credible assessment process and responsibility for difficult decisions.

I led the work to align shareholders and the board on a responsible approach to defence sales. I translated investor concerns into explicit exclusions, customer assessment criteria and a process for escalating higher-risk opportunities. I brought the revised policy to a majority shareholder vote and secured approval.

The framework addressed technology use, customer conduct and human-rights risks. It excluded uses such as autonomous weapons systems and involved the board in elevated-risk decisions.

I built and deployed an AI agent that automated customer due diligence, researching technology risk, customer reputation and geographic deployment risk. It assessed each opportunity against the fixed rules and criteria in the approved policy.

I connected the process to the CRM so assessments became part of the sales workflow. An internal committee used the assessment to make the final go/no-go decision.

The sales team could pursue suitable opportunities within a shareholder-approved ethical framework. Within one hour of a lead entering the CRM, a go/no-go outcome on whether the deal met the internal ethics policy could be ready to communicate to sales.

I took the work from shareholder alignment through policy approval to a production workflow. The agent automated due diligence and policy checks; the internal committee retained responsibility for the final decision, with board involvement for elevated-risk cases.