Riyadh:

The business world in Saudi Arabia is witnessing a significant technological revolution with the adoption of GenAI technologies and conversational robots, such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, among others. Companies across various sectors are employing these smart tools to achieve multiple objectives, including task automation and improved decision-making processes to gain a substantial competitive advantage and enhance governance, risk, and compliance (GRC).

These developments are a key driver in achieving Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, with 66 of its goals directly or indirectly related to data and AI. The Kingdom, with this ambitious vision, aims to lead in data and AI-driven economies to diversify its economy by supporting non-oil sectors and industries.

The field of GRC is one of the areas most affected by AI technologies. These technologies enable companies to process and analyse large amounts of data rapidly and accurately, creating comprehensive reports that help make better decisions regarding risks and comply with regulations and laws more effectively.

Challenges and collaboration

Despite the numerous benefits of GenAI technologies, their rapid development presents some challenges. These include the difficulty of integrating GRC standards with the evolving AI landscape and the need to continuously update laws and regulations to keep pace with developments. It has become essential for all concerned parties to adopt the concept of continuous improvement. This starts with GRC experts, who constantly keep up with technological advancements, and extends to regulatory bodies that oversee AI laws and need to update them continuously.

In this context, Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, the director of AI research at ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation and a leading provider of enterprise IT management solutions, emphasised the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors to leverage generative AI technologies in the GRC field. 'The future of generative AI in governance, risk, and compliance in Saudi Arabia is promising and full of potential,' Ramamoorthy said. 'However, it requires a thoughtful approach that considers risks and challenges alongside opportunities. Through effective collaboration between the public and private sectors, the kingdom can harness this revolutionary technology to enhance GRC efficiency and achieve excellence in various fields.'

Evolving benefits

Ramamoorthy explained that GenAI technologies offer numerous benefits for enhancing GRC systems. These benefits include task automation, improved change management, linking organisational activities to policies, facilitating risk detection, monitoring compliance, and providing objective risk assessments. This enables companies to reduce employee effort, enhance accuracy, and make better decisions regarding risk and compliance. He expects that the continuous development of these technologies will lead to further improvements and innovations in the field, contributing to increased operational efficiency, and ensuring a safe, effective, and legally compliant work environment.

The benefits of GenAI technologies are not limited to the general field of GRC but extend to each of its pillars. In governance, AI has immense capabilities in analysing data from various sources, including threats and compliance reports. This helps in efficiently detecting patterns and errors in data, enabling organisations to proactively adapt their policies to emerging threats and regulatory changes.

AI also helps in detecting subtle signs of cyber intrusions in data traffic and user behaviour using machine learning (ML) techniques. Additionally, it can automate the enforcement of security policies through natural language processing (NLP) to ensure compliance with internal and external policies, simplify governance processes, and secure organisations against cyberthreats by examining user access and the processing tasks.

Risk management

In risk management, AI offers numerous functions, including precise analysis of cybersecurity incident data and identifying trends and correlations to make informed decisions about risk mitigation. It can analyse breach scenarios and identify potential vulnerabilities and their financial impacts, including direct and indirect costs, using AI-based financial modeling tools. Additionally, AI has the ability to measure the potential ROI in strategic investment planning based on data and empirical evidence.

Regarding compliance, AI helps streamline system monitoring and reporting processes, ensuring regulatory compliance. It protects data by automatically classifying and encrypting it and analyses communications and transactions in real-time to detect indicators of non-compliance. Furthermore, AI analyses and understands complex regulatory contracts using NLP technology.

Concerns and challenges

Despite the significant benefits that GenAI offers in the field of GRC, Ramamoorthy also warns of some concerns and challenges associated with using these technologies.

On the one hand, models may produce incorrect information due to inaccurate data or human biases that may seep into AI systems and algorithms, affecting their accuracy and reliability. These systems also lack reliable references, making it difficult to verify the correctness of the information.

On the other hand, companies face ethical and legal challenges when using AI technologies in the GRC field. They may not possess the necessary ethical expertise to ensure responsible use of AI. Employment of experts specialised in AI ethics will be required to ensure that ethical and legal development and deployment of AI systems and applications.

GRC experts

GRC professionals play a crucial role in establishing policies for the use of AI technologies and creating the necessary controls to ensure compliance with ethical and legal standards, protecting institutions from the risks of adopting the new generation of AI. As AI technologies continue to advance, the role of GRC experts becomes essential to guide institutions in leveraging their capabilities while minimising risks and maintaining ethical standards.

Ramamoorthy recommends that institutions and companies in Saudi Arabia quickly address the challenges surrounding the safe integration and compliance with laws and regulations, particularly in the context of AI-driven risk management and compliance. He points out that exploring AI's capabilities in governance, risk, and compliance is no longer just a desirable option but has become an imperative necessity.

Ramamoorthy also highlighted the importance of embracing a variety of advanced technological solutions and overcoming any obstacles, whether small or large, to ensure progress in innovation and development. This will Saudi companies to get the most out of GenAI across various fields in alignment with the kingdom's ambitious vision to achieve leadership in the data and AI economy.