A finance company is developing an AI assistant to help clients plan investments and manage...

The correct combination is A, D, and F because these guardrail features directly map to the stated financial compliance and governance requirements.

Option A is required because denied topics guardrails are explicitly designed to block entire categories of requests, such as requests for guaranteed returns or specific stock recommendations. These are regulatory-sensitive scenarios where partial filtering is insufficient and full blocking is required to prevent violations.

Option D is correct because custom word filters are the appropriate guardrail mechanism to block references to specific competitor names. Content filters are category-based (such as hate, sexual, or violence-related content) and are not suitable for blocking organization-specific competitor references. Custom word filters allow precise blocking at both input and output stages.

Option F is required because a high grounding score threshold enforces that model outputs must be strongly supported by approved source material. This prevents the AI assistant from making speculative or unfounded claims that are not aligned with the company’s approved financial guidance, which is critical in regulated financial environments.

Option B is incorrect because content filters do not target domain-specific financial advice patterns. Option C is incorrect for the same reason—competitor names are not a content filter category. Option E would weaken factual grounding and increase hallucination risk.

Therefore, A, D, and F together provide topic blocking, competitor exclusion, and factual grounding enforcement.