Mara Senn on AI-Native, Human-in-the-Loop Investigations for Compliance

Mara Senn on AI-Native, Human-in-the-Loop Investigations for Compliance

August 31, 2026 · 31 min · Episode 822

About this episode

Mara Senn discusses the development of the Ethakos compliance investigations platform and the role of AI in enhancing compliance workflows.

In this episode, Tom Fox welcomes Mara Senn, founder and CEO of Ethakos, about her path from big law and a decade as a partner at Arnold & Porter to anti-corruption work at the Kleptocracy Initiative, investigations at the World Bank, and in-house leadership roles at Fortune 500 medical device and pharma companies. Senn explains she built the Ethakos compliance investigations platform using “vibe coding” with Claude, reducing reliance on software engineers and enabling rapid product decisions. She describes Ethakos as AI-native and human-in-the-loop, designed around how compliance teams actually work, with cleaner data creation, configurable workflows, and features that automate painful reporting tasks (e.g., investigation updates) and first drafts of chronologies, interview outlines, and reports. Senn emphasizes audibility via logs and citations, advises starting AI projects with clear risk goals, and predicts AI will remove menial work so teams can cover more risks while becoming more data- and tech-forward. Contact options include ethakos.com, email, and LinkedIn. Key highlights: Why Build Ethakos AI Native Platform Design Solving Reporting Pain Starting AI in Compliance…

People in this episode

Host: Thomas Fox

Guest: Mara Senn

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ethakos, Arnold & Porter, World Bank, Fortune 500

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