Global data show a large gap: organisations investing in trustworthy AI are 15 times more likely to report strong ROI, underscoring governance, data quality, and auditability as critical drivers.

Organisations with strong governance and data quality report at least double the ROI from AI deployments, while a small fraction of misleading or 'untrustworthy' organisations achieve similar returns.

A SAS- and IDC-compiled Data and AI Impact Report finds that trustworthy AI practices make organisations 15 times more likely to report strong ROI, highlighting governance, data quality, and auditability as key levers.

Shadow AI concerns are prominent in Australia, with 41% of respondents noting employees used unapproved AI tools due to lack of approved tools or processes.

Workforce readiness is deteriorating as only about a quarter of organisations are hiring or training for AI ethics, compliance, and risk management, and regular audits have declined, signaling rising risk as deployments scale.

The survey bases its findings on responses from 2,699 decision-makers across 28 countries, spanning banking, insurance, life sciences, and the public sector.

An infrastructure sovereignty gap exists due to the absence of locally hosted advanced large language models, causing sensitive data to be sent overseas; local verification and grounding systems are recommended as interim measures while broader investments are pursued.

Australian respondents report AI-related risk management workloads increasing, with about 25% more time spent on risk management than a year earlier.

AI-related incidents are widespread, with 86% reporting at least one incident; in response, 49% plan to increase training, while 27% would pause or slow deployments.

OneTrust’s 2026 AI-Ready Governance Report, based on Sapio Research, highlights gaps in AI governance as adoption accelerates across eight countries, including Australia.

Globally, 87% of organisations encourage AI agent use, but only 47% have clear governance and controls, and 28% saw two or more AI-related incidents in the past year.

In Oceania, 44% report organisations encouraging AI agents while governance and controls are still developing.