Dive Brief:
- A complex technology environment, mounting regulatory constraints and higher geopolitical risks are pushing business leaders to rethink their approach to digital governance, according to IAPP’s Digital Risk Report published last week. The findings are based on the privacy organization’s survey data interviews with senior leaders and analysis of securities filings.
- Organizations are increasingly streamlining processes and structures into a defined governance framework to better manage risks while benefitting from technology like AI, according to IAPP. The organization describes this as an aligned approach.
- “No regulation and no risk related to tech exists in a vacuum,” Joe Jones, director of research and insights at IAPP, told CIO Dive in an email. “There are many overlaps and intersections, requiring a more coordinated and converged approach.”
Dive Insight:
CIOs play an instrumental role in tackling technology governance, which has lagged while AI deployment speeds ahead.
AI governance maturity remains behind, with only 27% of companies reporting that their programs are fully mature, according to a Schellman report. Organizations are struggling to implement policies and oversight to keep up with AI adoption, the report found.
Part of the challenge with adopting an aligned governance approach stems from a lack of qualified personnel, according to the IAPP report.
“The scarcity of talent — or inability to attract and retain them — can potentially cause gaps in digital governance programs, where the need and desire for rapid technological innovation could outpace an organization’s internal capacity to develop, manage and audit systems in a legally compliant manner,” according to the report.
Organizations inching toward an aligned governance approach often create committees including members from each business domain and discipline to help in the advancement of a unified system, according to Jones.
“This can sometimes go the way of ‘death by committee’ with many overlapping, if not competing, cross-working committees, which we are seeing lead to a more aligned model,” he said.
Structurally, organizations are often seeking to align domains such as privacy, AI, governance and security into a more comprehensive digital risk governance framework with clear leadership and reporting lines, Jones said.
This framework also includes capabilities to resolve conflicts in domains where tensions might exist, such as data minimization requirements for privacy and more data for AI, he added.
When it comes to deploying the latest evolutions of AI, particularly agents, adaptable, proportional governance frameworks will be critical, according to a Gartner report. Agents will need different levels of permissions and autonomy to prevent organizations from experiencing project failures, the analyst firm found.
