OneTrust research finds widespread AI-related incidents are doing little to slow adoption, despite fewer than half of organisations having clear governance, oversight and controls in place.
Some 86% of organisations experienced at least one AI-related incident during the past year, according to research from OneTrust.
The 2026 AI-Ready Governance Report surveyed 1,200 senior business decision-makers across the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and Singapore.
Incidents included sensitive data or intellectual property exposure, unauthorised employee AI use, misinformation and data loss.
Despite this, only 27% of organisations slowed or paused AI deployments in response to incidents. Employee training was the most common response, cited by 49%.
The research also identified a gap between Agentic AI adoption and governance. While 87% of organisations encourage employees to use AI agents, only 47% have clear governance, oversight and controls in place.
Meanwhile, 28% experienced two or more incidents in which AI systems or agents took unauthorised actions.
Shadow AI is another concern, with 33% reporting employees using unauthorised AI because approved tools or processes were not available quickly enough.
“Every company is trying to hold on to two things at once: the speed they are getting from AI, and control over what AI does,” said Blake Brannon, Chief Innovation Officer at OneTrust. “The research says most are losing the second while working harder than ever to keep it. That is a design problem, not a staffing problem.”
Some 80% said they now spend more time managing AI-related risks than 12 months ago, while 98% plan to increase spending on AI governance technology during their next financial year.
