By Sohil Ramdas | Trace3 Innovation Principal
The objective of a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) program within the enterprise has a significant end goal. Ensure the systems, networks, and data deployed throughout the organization are implemented and aligned according to internal policies and external standards. This simple concept aims to mitigate risk and provide assurance the controls designed to protect the technology environment truly operate as intended. Now the compliance framework may vary for each organization, based on elements such as industry sector or geographic location, but the workflows remain relatively consistent.
However, what happens when the people, process, and technologies that supported yesterday’s compliance program can no longer keep pace with today’s demands? Adding headcount is not always the answer, and process improvements can only go so far. As requirements grow and environments become more complex, organizations demand a more tangible way to address challenges with maintaining compliance and managing risk.
This is where modern technologies have evolved to help programs scale. As GRC solutions implement more automated and agentic capabilities into their platforms, organizations are provided with a new approach to those challenges, such as the manual or time-intensive efforts tasks typically associated with compliance.
The new end goal is no longer simply to be audit-ready at a point in time but strategically shift to an always-ready state, one that can adapt as the requirements grow and risks change.
When the enterprise had a finite number of assets in scope, a select few compliance frameworks and standards to adhere to, and defined roles and responsibilities for resources to manage the workstream, the process was relatively straightforward. The enterprise would undergo an annual audit or periodic assessment, depending on the framework and internal needs of the organization. During this time, the control owners, GRC teams, and auditors would execute the steps within the lifecycle of the audit. This included identifying the controls for validation, producing evidence, and performing the proper testing to ensure the operational effectiveness of controls matched the intended design. The process was simple enough where spreadsheets and manual tracking could satisfy the requirements.
But as the business and technology landscape expanded, the once straightforward process started to become complex with new challenges for the GRC program to solve. Some of the common obstacles included:
New regulatory frameworks and standards introduced additional requirements, increasing the complexity of managing and maintaining compliance across the organization
As the business grew, so did the technology footprint, requiring more evidence to be collected and controls to be validated
The compliance scope extended beyond internal processes to include how the organization managed risk across third parties, vendors, and partners
Distribution of compliance responsibilities expanded across the business, requiring greater coordination and collaboration among stakeholders
Overall, organizations would meet the audit deadlines through steady process improvements and better tooling, but compliance and the associated efforts remained largely manual and resource intensive. Additionally, even when the audit was completed, there was limited assurance the controls continued to operate as expected until the next assessment cycle was underway. Because these challenges remained, it created the need for a new generation of compliance solutions, focused on continuous assurance through automation and AI capabilities.
So how have modern GRC platforms transformed compliance from a point-in-time assessment to an always-on, audit-ready program? From automated evidence gathering to AI-driven workflows, these solutions are reshaping how enterprises manage regulatory and compliance requirements.
Data Ingestion and Collection
Vendors such as Anecdotes leverage native integrations to connect directly to the data sources, providing the capabilities for continuous evidence gathering across the environment. This moves the manual efforts typically required from a technology owner, such as accessing systems and performing exports, to the GRC platforms. Through the automated evidence gathering enabled via the integrations, enterprises have real-time data to support audits. Additionally, this process sets the foundation for normalization, where the raw data from multiple systems is structured into a standardized format for GRC workflows.
Continuous Control Monitoring and Testing
This is a significant concept to push compliance from a static checkbox to a security and always-ready state. Compliance frameworks are built upon control objectives (e.g., access control or data protection), and each framework may have its own language on how a requirement must be satisfied. To guide this, solutions such as Compyl now implement agentic capabilities to build upon the automated evidence collection processes. Agents will ingest frameworks, perform intelligent control mapping, then utilize context and reason to ensure produced evidence satisfies the requirements across the board. This is no longer a point in time, but rather continuous 24/7 testing carried out by agents where drift can be detected and acted upon accordingly.
Autonomous Third-Party Risk Management
While we have focused primarily on the process of identifying and mitigating risk for internal operations of the business, it is just as critical to perform this assessment with the organization’s external vendors and partners. This is the space where third-party risk management, or TPRM, operates within and has gained significant momentum in GRC platforms. Solutions like Zania utilize AI agents to autonomously perform the TPRM workflow, including but not limited to intake and risk assessment of third parties, evidence collection with testing, and vendor follow-ups to ensure gaps are identified and remediated as needed. With the agent’s ability to apply business context throughout TPRM workflows, GRC teams are empowered to act as oversight and decision-makers while the platform handles operational tasks.
As these few examples showcase, automation and agentic capabilities are transforming compliance. By reducing manual efforts and streamlining workflows, these technologies are enabling GRC teams to focus on strategy and scale with the business needs.
When evaluating the GRC market, organizations should first identify the challenges they are trying to solve and the requirements of their program. Understanding these fundamental items helps narrow the field and determine which solutions are the best fit. Questions to help guide this evaluation may include:
Which processes could be described as a bottleneck in today’s GRC program?
How many frameworks are managed today, and which ones could be in scope in the future?
What systems are critical in terms of evidence production and controls testing?
Where can processes be improved from an automation standpoint?
Do I have custom standards and policies that need to be integrated?
While there are many factors to consider and could be added to the self-assessment, this serves as a starting point for evaluating the market. Each GRC platform brings its own strength, whether it is in its integration suite, third-party risk management, agentic capabilities, or workflow maturity. By building this decision framework, enterprises can align the platform functions to their requirements and select a solution best suited for their compliance environment.
Regulatory requirements and compliance obligations continue to expand as organizations scale operations and adopt new technologies. In response, GRC platforms have evolved beyond traditional approaches through the introduction of strategic automation and agentic workflows into their solutions. This guides enterprises into their phase of going from audit-ready to always-ready.
If you’re curious to learn more or want to stay on top of the latest developments in Innovation, feel free to reach out to us at innovation@trace3.com.
Sohil Ramdas serves as an Innovation Principal on Trace3’s Innovation Team. With a background in cybersecurity, he leverages his extensive experience in both industry and consulting roles to now provide clients with guidance on emerging technologies. His objective is to supply organizations with the expertise required to securely innovate and scale in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.