Governance and compliance functions across global organisations are facing rising operational strain as expectations around artificial intelligence oversight continue to increase, according to a new report by Diligent.
The study, which surveyed 309 senior practitioners across North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the UK, examined how governance leaders, general counsels and corporate secretaries manage entity compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
The findings highlight a function under growing pressure from expanding responsibilities, limited resources and fragmented visibility into compliance obligations. Nearly 75% of respondents reported that their remit has expanded over the past 2 years, while 46% said workloads are increasing faster than staffing levels.
Technology limitations emerged as a key challenge. About 47% of respondents pointed to legacy systems and technology gaps as a major constraint, placing it on par with regulatory complexity as a source of operational difficulty.
Risk exposure also appears to be increasing. More than half of respondents reported at least one near-miss compliance incident in the past year. At the same time, only 19% said they had near real-time visibility into their compliance obligations, indicating widespread reliance on delayed or incomplete data.
Many teams continue to depend on spreadsheets to manage information gaps, making it harder to provide boards and senior leadership with up-to-date governance insights.
AI oversight emerged as the most significant future capability area. Globally, 64% of respondents said AI governance would be the most critical skill over the next 3 years, ahead of traditional legal and compliance expertise.
In the UK and Europe, this figure rose to around 70%, reflecting a stronger focus on responsible AI adoption. However, these regions also showed greater caution toward automation. Only 27% of respondents said they were comfortable with AI executing compliance actions without human approval, compared with 38% globally. Overall, 36% of respondents said they would not be comfortable with AI performing such tasks autonomously.
Despite concerns, AI adoption is already widespread. The report found 58% of governance teams are using AI in some form, although 69% of those rely on general productivity tools rather than specialised compliance platforms.
The study also identified a perception gap between governance teams and boards. While 56% of professionals see themselves as strategic advisers, only 17% believe boards view them in that way. Additionally, 52% said boards underestimate the complexity of entity governance work.
Amanda Carty, General Manager, Compliance at Diligent, said pressure on governance teams is intensifying. “Teams managing entity governance are facing more risk, more complexity, and higher expectations-all without more resources,” she said.
She added that organisations now have an opportunity to modernise governance systems. “The opportunity lies in how organisations respond. Strategic leaders are using this moment to modernise their operating model-connecting entity data, board oversight, and AI-driven execution to strengthen governance, support faster and more confident decision-making and elevate the function’s role across the organization,” she said.
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