Report by EY

US AI Risk and Governance Survey

27 FINDINGSPublished Sep 15, 2026
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Key Findings

91% of senior AI executives report their organization uses agentic AI through active pilot programs or full enterprise deployment.

Agentic AIEnterprise Risk

49% of senior AI executives whose organization uses agentic AI say their governance framework has not been updated to include agentic AI requirements and risks.

Agentic AIAI GovernanceEnterprise Risk

72% of senior AI executives fear the inability to accurately trace or audit the data lineage and inputs that feed critical AI decision models.

Agentic AIAI GovernanceEnterprise Risk

89% of senior AI executives say they encountered AI-related risks in the past year.

AI RiskEnterprise Risk

52% of senior AI executives say they encountered cybersecurity risks as an AI-related risk in the past year.

AI RiskEnterprise Risk

9% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review paused three-quarters or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

36% of senior AI executives report their organization experienced an AI incident or failure that caused a materially negative impact, including data loss, financial damage, brand damage and operational disruptions.

AI IncidentsOperational RiskEnterprise Risk

81% of senior AI executives express fear of third-party AI-enabled cyber attacks.

AIAI RiskEnterprise Risk

85% of senior AI executives whose organization uses agentic AI say at least a handful of those systems execute actions without real-time human involvement.

Agentic AIHuman OversightEnterprise Risk

72% of senior AI executives fear their organization failing to comply with new or emerging AI-specific regulations.

Regulatory RiskComplianceAgentic AIEnterprise Risk

63% of senior AI executives express concern about a lack of internal expertise to implement AI governance controls.

AI GovernanceSkills GapEnterprise Risk

98% of senior AI executives say their organization conducts a formal AI assurance review at least annually.

AI AssuranceComplianceEnterprise Risk

14% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review had to modify three-quarters or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

39% of organizations that conducted formal AI assurance reviews identify shadow AI as a common issue.

Shadow AIAI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

47% of senior AI executives say their organization previously did not apply its AI governance process for urgent deployments.

AI GovernanceEnterprise Risk

98% of senior AI executives report that their organization has formal AI governance policies in place.

AI GovernanceCorporate PolicyEnterprise Risk

26% of senior AI executives whose organization uses agentic AI report that their organization cannot detect unauthorized AI agents operating internally.

Agentic AIThreat DetectionEnterprise RiskAI Agents

69% of senior AI executives express concern about a lack of internal expertise to effectively evolve AI governance controls.

AI GovernanceSkills GapEnterprise Risk

47% of senior AI executives say they encountered human risk as an AI-related risk in the past year.

Human RiskAI RiskEnterprise Risk

46% of senior AI executives say they encountered shadow AI risk as an AI-related risk in the past year.

Shadow AIAI RiskEnterprise Risk

29% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review paused a quarter or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

25% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review fully stopped a quarter or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

5% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review fully stopped three-quarters or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

57% of organizations that conducted formal AI assurance reviews identify data quality problems as a common issue.

Data QualityAI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

48% of organizations that conducted formal AI assurance reviews identify AI model drift as a common issue.

Model DriftAI AssuranceEnterprise Risk

75% of senior AI executives fear a high-profile AI failure publicly impacting their organization's reputation.

AI FailureEnterprise Risk

64% of organizations that conducted a formal AI assurance review significantly modified a quarter or more of their AI systems.

AI AssuranceEnterprise Risk