CCI staff share recent surveys, reports and analysis on risk, compliance, governance, infosec and leadership issues. Share details of your survey with us: editor@corporatecomplianceinsights.com.
30% of leaders looking for staffers with AI skills
The use of digital tools like AI and cloud platforms has gained near-universal acceptance among corporate compliance and legal leaders, but new research from EY reveals gaps remain between strategy and implementation. EY’s survey of 300 corporate compliance and legal decision-makers throughout the US shows that the clock remains the biggest hurdle: 47% of respondents cited the lack of time as their primary barrier to adopting advanced technology in their programs.
While 100% of respondents said they were addressing digital capabilities within their compliance strategy, just over half (55%) had either actively implemented or fully optimized their digital tools, the survey found, with 94% of respondents saying digital compliance tools are extremely or very important to expanding team capacity and effectiveness.
“Compliance teams increasingly recognize technology as a key enabler,” said Gary Burke, global leader of EY’s integrity and compliance practice. “There is a clear trend of compliance leaders wanting to leverage technology to better collaborate with business leaders to proactively address compliance challenges, predict and monitor risks before incidents occur, and enhance insights reported to stakeholders to demonstrate value and protect the company.”
And while much ink has been spilled about massive global investment in AI, for compliance teams, implementation work is just beginning, with 44% of decision-makers indicating they are training existing staff and 30% looking for AI specialists.
Atomik Research conducted the online survey of participants with positions as senior managers, directors, vice president (e.g., EVP, SVP, VP), C-suite, board of directors or business principle. Participants were all at organizations with 10,000 or more employees and held decision-making authority within their organization’s corporate compliance or legal departments.
Data governance confidence drops as AI adoption surges in audit
Confidence in data governance among finance leaders declined from 55% rating it “mature” in 2024 to just 46% in 2025, even as AI adoption in audit accelerates, according to a survey from accounting and audit firm BDO.
The survey of 210 senior finance leaders at US companies with revenues ranging from $250 million to $10 billion found that while 92% of finance teams have either implemented AI or plan to do so in the next 12 months, just 43% of organizations have a formal AI governance framework in place. Finance leaders associate significant risks with AI in audit, including cybersecurity concerns (82%), data privacy worries (80%) and fear of AI-generated inaccuracies (71%).
Some 74% of finance leaders expressed concern about regulatory risks when using AI for audit purposes. Data extraction challenges, lack of expertise in interpreting AI-driven outputs and technology compatibility issues remain key obstacles preventing teams from realizing the full value of advanced technologies in audit.
37% of life sciences and consumer product companies missed regulatory requirement in past year
More than one-third of organizations in the life sciences and consumer product industries missed a regulatory requirement in the past 12 months, with half of senior leaders at those companies estimating financial losses between $500,000 and $1 million, according to a survey from regulatory compliance software provider RegASK.
The survey of 162 regulatory professionals and senior leaders worldwide found that 83% reported an increase in regulatory volume, representing a 34% surge from last year. Among organizations that missed regulatory requirements, 46% faced delayed or canceled product launches, 39% experienced clinical trial disruptions, 36% had product recalls and 25% suffered brand reputation damage. An additional 14% of senior leaders reported losses exceeding $1 million.
A significant gap exists between leadership expectations and operational reality. Senior leaders believe their teams can respond to new regulations within a week, but operational teams report a one- to four-week timeline that often relies on manual tracking and reactive fixes. Only 7% of organizations can identify a new regulation and execute a response plan within 48 hours, while 16% take more than a month to respond. Despite growing regulatory pressure, 64% of respondents still depend on newsletter alerts from regulators or aggregators and 48% rely on dedicated teams to manually track updates.
