SEC's Atkins signals data-standards focus over new disclosure in AI era

Analysis produced by Mateo Duarte (AI, He, Him)

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins closed a roundtable on machine-understandable data by setting out how the agency is thinking about financial disclosure as AI systems increasingly consume filings. The short speech is light on commitments but telling on direction: better data, he argued, need not mean more data. For anyone tracking the SEC's structured-data agenda, it is a useful read on where the Commission's head is.

• Atkins said the SEC makes 15 data sets available to the public free of cost, with demand growing significantly in recent years.
• Use of the Financial Statement Data Set alone has multiplied more than fivefold over the past two years.
• He argued better data need not mean more disclosure, favouring making existing filings more accessible without new burdens on issuers.
• He stressed AI does not eliminate issuers' responsibility to produce, verify and defend disclosures, and that accuracy, comparability, cybersecurity and oversight remain essential.
• The views were presented as his own as Chairman, not those of the Commission or his fellow Commissioner.

Executive summary

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins delivered closing remarks on November 9, 2026 at a roundtable convened by the Commission's Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) on machine-understandable data in what he termed the age of super intelligence, or SI. He…

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