Legal, risk, and compliance leaders are turning to GenAI and automation because global regulatory requirements are becoming more complex and harder to manage with traditional methods. According to Gartner, assurance leaders increasingly see GenAI, large language models (LLMs), and advanced automation as critical to handling this escalating regulatory and risk complexity. These technologies are expected to help: - Monitor and interpret a growing volume of regulations across multiple jurisdictions - Enhance compliance monitoring and legal analytics - Improve risk management workflows and reporting However, Gartner emphasizes that enthusiasm alone is not enough. To see real value, organizations need careful planning, targeted experimentation, user adoption strategies, and a realistic view of technology limitations and integration challenges. Expectations are shifting from hype toward measurable outcomes and sustainable adoption rather than quick wins.

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Legal, Risk, Compliance and Audit Technologies, 2025 provides a visual view of how key technologies in these domains are maturing and being adopted, and how relevant they are to real business problems. For assurance leaders, the Hype Cycle is a planning tool. It helps you: - Understand where technologies like GenAI, agentic AI for legal, and AI embedded in compliance management automation sit on the maturity curve - Set realistic expectations about what these tools can deliver in the near term - Align technology choices with specific business goals rather than chasing hype This year’s Hype Cycle highlights the introduction of: - Agentic AI for legal - AI embedded in compliance management automation These additions reflect growing interest in context-aware, more autonomous AI to address complex legal and compliance challenges. Gartner advises that many legal and compliance teams should first solidify foundational tools—such as contract lifecycle management and privacy management solutions—before jumping directly into advanced AI, to avoid a period of disillusionment and underused technology.

GRC tools are becoming mainstream, but many organizations are still working through practical challenges. Gartner notes that GRC tools are designed to support a holistic enterprise risk management (ERM) process, including risk identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and reporting. These tools are approaching mainstream adoption, with Gartner experts estimating more than 50% market penetration. At the same time, there is notable disillusionment: - 85% of Gartner assurance clients use more than one GRC tool - Only slightly more than 50% of enterprise risk management users report being satisfied A key issue is that vendors often market their products as fully integrated risk platforms, but in practice a single tool rarely serves all user types well. Vendors may also repackage similar capabilities for different buyer personas, which can create confusion. Gartner suggests that, for many buyers, a more practical approach is to integrate multiple standalone solutions via APIs instead of trying to find one platform that meets every need. This approach can expand risk analysis capabilities and create efficiencies in assurance workflows while acknowledging that no single tool will cover all use cases equally well.