Changes to compliance requirements leave professionals struggling to keep up

The rise of AI and increasing global regulations have raised the stakes for businesses, as they navigate complex requirements to protect sensitive data and ensure ethical practices.

A new survey from trust management platform Drata reveals that 48 percent of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) professionals struggle to keep pace with updates to existing compliance frameworks and identifying areas needing attention.

This is concerning as businesses are experiencing significant consequences due to inadequate compliance postures and processes, from brand safety and reputation issues (51 percent) to security or data breaches (49 percent).

"Governance, risk, and compliance has long been a pain point for organizations, and despite the improvements we’ve seen in recent years, it's clear many of those challenges still exist today, making it difficult for business to properly maintain their GRC program and effectively maintain trust," says Matt Hillary, Drata's VP of security and CISO. "In addition to adding more compliance frameworks to their program, security and GRC teams should anticipate significant changes to the GRC function as a result of AI. GRC teams who aren't prepared for these changes will experience major roadblocks with scaling their compliance programs and upleveling their organizations to meet these demands."

Among other findings are that 100 percent of companies surveyed expect employees to increase their use of AI technologies in the next 12 months, yet only 10 percent have a GRC program fully prepared to manage it.

While 46 percent believe AI will improve regulatory compliance, many have fears around AI biases impacting GRC decision making (43 percent) and AI hallucinations giving improper GRC guidance (39 percent). The need for manual interventions with GRC account for 14 hours per week on average.

The full report is available from the Drata site.

Image credit: BiancoBlue/depositphotos.com