SEBI Compliance for AI Information Services (2026)
SEBI's regulatory regime separates investment-advice services from research services from pure information services. The category an AI-driven stock-alert tool falls into is not aesthetic, it determines what the tool can say, what disclosures are required, and what a retail user can expect.
Disclaimer: This article is an explainer of SEBI's regulatory framework as of May 2026. It is not legal advice. Regulations evolve; consult a SEBI-registered intermediary or qualified counsel for specific compliance questions.
The defining question SEBI asks of any market-facing service is: “Are you giving advice, or are you giving information?” Advice triggers RIA / RA registration, capital adequacy, examinations, audit, and ongoing supervision. Information delivery does not. The two activities can sit in the same product as long as the line is clearly drawn.
For users, the practical implication is which guardrails apply when something goes wrong. An RIA you paid for advice has a fiduciary duty to you under the IA Regulations 2013. An information service does not, it owes you the accuracy of the information it surfaces, but not a personalised recommendation.
The four buckets
Investment Adviser (RIA)
Registered under SEBI (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013. Provides personalised advice on whether the user should buy / sell / hold a specific security or portfolio. Fee-only model post-2020 reforms; cannot earn from product distribution simultaneously.
Research Analyst (RA)
Registered under SEBI (Research Analysts) Regulations, 2014. Issues research reports, target prices, and buy / sell / hold ratings on securities. Required to disclose conflicts of interest and the basis for ratings.
Information Service / Information Aggregator
Surfaces public market information, exchange filings, news, prices, sentiment, without giving personalised advice or making buy / sell calls. Aktai sits here. The line is sharp: the service can describe what happened, it cannot tell you what to do about it.
Finfluencer (regulated 2024+)
SEBI tightened rules on social-media finfluencers in 2024. Anyone giving stock recommendations on public platforms (YouTube, X, Telegram) is now expected to be SEBI-registered or partner with a registered entity. Many channels were forced to add disclaimers or shut down.
How to spot the line in practice
Three quick tests:
- Specific security recommendation? “Buy RELIANCE at 2,800, target 3,100” → that's research / advice. “RELIANCE filed a Reg 30 disclosure on a refining-margin upgrade” → that's information.
- Personalised to user? “Given your portfolio, you should consider trimming TCS” → that's advice. “TCS results are out at 17:30 IST today” → information.
- Performance representation? Anything claiming “our calls returned X%” needs research / advisory backing. Information services don't make calls, so they don't have a record to claim.
Where Aktai sits
Aktai is an information service. The product surfaces public market events to a user's chosen channel within seconds of those events becoming public. It does not issue buy / sell / hold ratings, does not target prices, does not personalise recommendations to a user's holdings, and does not represent past performance.
The shorthand we use internally: “Aktai surfaces information faster, what you do with it is between you and your advisor.” That positioning is also the reason Aktai can offer a free tier, there's no advisory fee structure to amortise across users.
What this means for the user
If you're relying on Aktai alerts as your only input to a buy / sell decision, you're using the tool wrong. Aktai compresses the time between “something material happened” and “you found out about it.” The decision step still belongs in your process, typically with your broker, your RIA, or your own research.
Related reads: SEBI compliance checklist for Research Analysts 2026, automate client notes under SEBI Regulation 25, About Aktai.