Only 26% of enterprises say AI governance keeps pace, Smarsh finds

The Smarsh EDGE event in New York framed the shift from communications archiving to active intelligence. Goutam Nadella, Smarsh's chief strategy officer, noted that governance must be foundational rather than episodic, pointing to regulatory fines for failing to preserve WhatsApp and other messaging. Rohit Khanna described how supervisors can now ask agents plain-language questions and receive flagged conversations with risk scores, aided by a context layer for which Smarsh has filed a patent. Kamesh Tumsi said 70% to 80% of compliance spending still goes toward labor, suggesting significant potential return from AI. A multiyear strategic collaboration agreement with AWS is building governance and security at the infrastructure layer, according to Arym Diamond of AWS and Peter Sankauskas of Caylent. The study's 26% figure underscores the gap between deployment and readiness as AI becomes both a tool and a channel to capture, including agents communicating with other agents.